Global Relay will soon be settling into a new home away from home, occupying the three top levels of a London office building where the Vancouver-based fintech oversees its European operations.
“They signed the lease after the vote to leave the EU,” U.K. Investment Minister Graham Stuart told BIV Today.
“Yet another vote of confidence from Canadian businesses following so many others in the future of the U.K. as a major financial centre and a major business centre.”
The British cabinet member was in Vancouver October 3 to pitch business leaders on making business investments across the pond.
The attention paid to Canada comes in the wake of a British economy facing potential upheaval in the wake of Brexit.
Stuart, who had been in snowy Calgary the day before, said he’s positive the two countries can maintain continuity in trade relations going forward.
Canada is currently linked to the U.K. via the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) negotiated with the European Union.
But the deal will no longer apply to the U.K. once it leaves the EU.
“The aim is to land a deal that as much replicates the existing one,” Stuart said.
“If there were no [Brexit] deal, we’ve done a lot of work on both ends — Canada and the U.K. — to ensure that we can smoothly transition. But we do expect a deal.”
However, questions remain whether the U.K. will be able to successfully negotiate a divorce agreement from the EU ahead of its March 2019 departure.
The uncertainty over a no-deal Brexit leaves the economy — and potential Canadian investors — in precarious position.
“There’ve been many predictions of a slowdown in the economy. The U.K. economy is not slowing down. The U.K. economy is growing solidly,” Stuart said.
“Unemployment stats came out just three weeks ago. We’ve got more people in work than ever before.”
Labour data from the British Office for National Statistics revealed last month that the country’s unemployment rate stands at 4%, a 40-year low.
“You’re an economically dynamic place and we want, as I say, to build a truly global Britain. And not looking to British Columbia would be a big mistake in that respect,” Stuart said.
