There has been a complete leadership vacuum in UK financial services sector since the EU referendum on 24 June 2016, which is affecting the sector’s competitiveness and threatening jobs, according to Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI).

In The Review, CISI’s quarterly member magazine, CISI said that this leadership vacuum in the financial sector was “galling”, given the importance of the sector. Other EU financial centres are salivating at the real prospect of attracting business away from the UK, it added.

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According to the trade body, what the industry required post Brexit was a communicative leader who would be highly visible.

“He or she should have been giving press interviews, appearing on TV and radio and exploiting social media to the hilt with a constant message, promoting financial services, calming nervous employees and customers, setting out what is needed in future negotiations and expanding on the positive opportunities ahead, “ CISI said.

CISI noted that even though regulators have been communicating to their key constituents and financial providers have been reassuring customers, public leadership for the financial sector as a whole has been missing.

CISI CEO Simon Culhane said: “There have been a number of discussions beneath the radar, but that’s not good enough. What the sector needs is a public, loud, visible champion communicator. Instead there has been almost total silence and zero direction or reassurance. It is no wonder that a new body, City United, is emerging to fill the vacuum.

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“There are strong winds from Europe now, threatening our sector. Our industry’s one million employees deserve more than fair weather leaders; they deserve men and women who will step up to the plate quickly. If our present captains are not prepared to chart our course to a successful Brexit, as our new Prime Minister and her ‘Ministry for Brexit’ will rightly demand, we – and she – must find and welcome others who are prepared to do so, and quickly.”