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In the The Financial Times article UBS chairman Axel Weber assesed that

the division of Europe is a massive benefit to the City of London because if Europe were united the impact ... of Brexit would be much more... It’s all about competition between financial centres within Europe, Frankfurt against Paris. It shouldn’t be a zero-sum game.

Have there been any signs that a political compromise could be struck to create only one financial centre in the EU?

EDIT:

The article is paywalled, but basically the idea (I came across also in other FT pieces) is that at the moment more European cities (Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris, Luxemburg, Dublin) are vying to replace The City of London to service the EU single market (and become a major global finance hub) and this competition is effectivelly preventing any serious attempt to shift the bulk of financial services from London to the continent.

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  • I think, summary weight of Deutche Bank and Pariba, plus trade barriers between EU and GB would be more than enough to give a blow to the City of London.
    – user2501323
    Dec 16, 2020 at 11:39
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    These financial centres already exist. The article itself is paywalled so I can't be sure I understand the question correctly, but presumably it's talking about the business currently centred in London finding a new home. If there is one clear "replacement" location, all the business just shifts there. If the European centres compete, some may not move because they don't know which destination is the "best" one.
    – Jontia
    Dec 16, 2020 at 11:39
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    Without being able to prove either side and being inherently biased because I am German, I thought Frankfurt as the replacement of London was basically a no-brainer.
    – Jan
    Dec 16, 2020 at 13:32
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    @Jan not really, so far the largest number of companies (72) relocated to Luxemburg, 35 to France, 31 to the Netherlands and 30 to Germany, according to the FT Luxembourg among biggest winners from Brexit (sorry, behind paywall again)
    – krenkz
    Dec 16, 2020 at 14:03
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    It seems you've answered your own question to a good degree with that last article. It would be interesting to have data in terms of volume of investment instead of just number of companies, but I don't know of any comprehensive statistics and it may be too soon to ask such a question anyway. Ask a year from now.
    – Fizz
    Dec 16, 2020 at 14:26

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It's hard to prove a negative, but ultimately the answer to this is likely to be no.

These financial centres already exist. The source article is paywalled, but presumably it's talking about the business currently centered in London finding a new home. If there is one clear "replacement" location, all the business just shifts there. If the European centres compete, some may not move because they don't know which destination is the "best" one

The EU simply isn't interested in this kind of micro-management of its member countries economic strategies. The EU as a body didn't get involved in where Toyota or Ineos build their cars and they wont get involved in where financial businesses choose to move to once (or if) the City is disconnected from the EU via trade barriers.

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