The UK has won a court ruling against the European Central Bank which could have forced firms handling large euro transactions to move to the eurozone.
The surprise victory ends a three-year dispute which could have banned the clearing and settlement of euro-transacted deals in the UK.
The ECB had said firms managing large euro deals should be eurozone-based.
But the EU General Court ruled that the ECB lacked the legal powers to enforce this.
“The ECB lacks the competence necessary to regulate the activity of securities clearing systems as its competence is limited to payment systems alone,” the Luxembourg-based court said in its ruling.
The UK had argued that the ECB policy, set out in an 2011 paper but never enforced, went against the EU’s single market establishing the free movement of goods, people, services and capital.
