Brexit is firmly back on the agenda, says Ian Lynch in recent PDI interview

With the end of the Brexit transition looming, Ian Lynch, Chief Commercial Officer at Intertrust Group, recently spoke with Private Debt Investor (PDI) on how the landscape has changed and the impact of Covid-19 on fund managers’ mitigation plans.

On the challenges of Covid-imposed travel restrictions and the impact on contingency plans involving continental hubs, Ian told PDI: “It’s a matter of managers going back to the plans they had in place a year ago and activating them, with an overlay of Covid on top.

“If the regulators are going to be rigid and are not going to take Covid into account, then it is a matter of starting to think about moving people and starting to think about practical issues, such as quarantine.”

While the industry has been dominated by the turmoil of the Covid-19 economic disruption, there is a greater urgency for fund managers to take action and improve their readiness for the challenges ahead.

Ian said: “Everybody thought Brexit was behind us. Covid happened and took over the world, but that didn’t stop the clock.”

“The urgency of Brexit, and people’s focus on their readiness, has really increased in the last week or two. As a fund manager managing assets on behalf of external investors, you have to plan for the worst and hope you get something better than that. Currency exposure will be one thing that people will be concerned about if we go into a disorderly Brexit, for example.”

With the aim of supporting businesses throughout this period of transition, as a leading provider of administrative services, Intertrust Group has updated its Brexit Readiness: Getting to Day One checklist and service suite to help companies ensure that they can continue trading with Europe after the transition period ends.

The checklist has been designed to provide companies with an accurate view of their progress against meeting the requirements of a post-Brexit trading environment. The comprehensive checklist is used in conjunction with interview-based assessments with Intertrust Group’s experienced team.

To access the complete checklist, please arrange an assessment appointment via [email protected]