European banks are underprepared for Brexit and could lose access to the City of London if they do not move quickly to apply for a UK banking licence, a Bank of England committee has warned.

Officials at the Bank are pushing lenders to sharpen up their contingency plans as their branches in Britain could lose the right to operate after March 2019.

This is crucial both to the UK and the EU economies as London is the centre of European capital markets.

If foreign banks lose access to Britain - because their regulations cut them off from funds and banks outside the EU - it risks causing immense disruption to the continent, starving businesses of the funds they need to invest and grow.