Mairead McGuinness, the EU’s financial services commissioner, said: “It’s fair to say we’ve turned a page on our relationship… This has allowed us to move forward in a spirit of partnership based on trustful operation and delivering benefits for people on both sides.”

However, lawyers warned Britain not to expect major compromises from Brussels as the two sides thrash out market access. Etay Katz, a financial services lawyer at Ashurst, said: “Fundamentally, the EU is competing with the UK for financial business and thus we do not expect any meaningful concessions from the EU other than those dictated by self-interest or systemic considerations.”

The Commission has long been accused of holding up any decision on equivalence for the City, citing concerns that the UK has yet set out its plans for post-Brexit regulatory divergence. After Britain’s split from the bloc, Amsterdam overtook London as Europe’s largest share trading hub.

Brussels refused to make any provision for financial services in the trade deal.

Equivalence can be withdrawn unilaterally by either side with as little as 30 days notice.

This has been used by Eurocrats as political leverage in a number of negotiations, including a bid to force Switzerland to renegotiate its relationship with the EU.

Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, has previously accused Brussels of having unreasonable and unfair expectations of London during negotiations for post-Brexit access to EU financial markets.

In his Mansion House speech in 2021, he said: “The EU has argued it must better understand how the UK intends to amend or alter the rules going forwards. This is a standard that the EU holds no other country to and would, I suspect, not agree to be held to itself.”

The comments were echoed by an influential parliamentary committee, which last year accused Brussels of holding the City to a higher standard than Communist China.

Lord Kinnoull, chairman of the Lords European affairs committee, said: “China has been granted equivalence by the EU in a dozen or more areas. It looks odd and wrong that the UK has not been granted this considering we are democracies of a similar character.”