The UK public voted to leave the European Union in June 2016 amid concerns the trading bloc had too much influence on the country’s laws. On November 13, 2018, almost two-and-a-half years later, negotiators in the EU and UK provisionally agreed on the final terms of the split.

Here is what you need to know:

What’s going on?

The UK’s prime minister Theresa May and the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier have secured a provisional agreement on a Brexit deal.

But this isn’t the job done.

May must now secure the backing of her government ministers to pave the way for European policymakers to call a special summit this month in which EU leaders will be invited to endorse the deal.

Parliaments in both the EU and UK will then scrutinise the Brexit deal before voting on whether or not to sign it into their respective statute books.

Time is running out for both sides – the UK must exit the bloc regardless on March 29 2019.

Why has it taken so long to secure this agreement?

The Brexit deal must stipulate how both sides plan to unpick the UK’s four-decade membership of the European trading bloc and outline how the two will interact in future.

That’s no small task.

Talks have been further complicated by a requirement to agree a deal that doesn’t reinstate a border on the island of Ireland. Negotiators in the EU and UK have spent months struggling to agree how to do that.

Why is the Irish border a concern?

Politicians ended decades of brutal conflict over Northern Ireland’s status as a province of the UK in the late 1990s.

They did so in part by removing a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. That was possible because both were members of the EU and could trade goods and services without restriction.

But Brexit will change the way in which the EU trades with the UK. It could thereby require a border to be reinstated and reignite conflict in Ireland.

What is the solution?

The text of the deal tentatively agreed this week has yet to be made public.

But the EU has previously made clear it wants any Brexit agreement to stipulate that Northern Ireland will remain “closely aligned” with European trading rules, so effectively a member of the EU, until a solution to the border problem is secured.

Many UK politicians saw that as an attempt by the EU to annex part of the British Isles, however.

May had sought to end the stalemate by suggesting all of the UK follows the EU’s trading rules for goods — but not services — until 2021 in a bid to buy more time to resolve the border issue.

What comes next?

Securing agreement from May’s government will be no easy feat for the prime minister.

She has faced opposition in recent weeks from both Eurosceptic and Europhile politicians in the UK, with both sides complaining May’s approach to Brexit will leave the country exposed to European diktats.

Several of May’s government ministers have resigned in protest. Just hours after the news of a provisional Brexit agreement, leading Eurosceptic politicians were voicing concerns about the terms.

May’s ruling Conservative Party has only a small majority in the UK parliament. She needs support from as many of her party as possible to get a Brexit deal voted into law.

What does this mean for financial services firms in the UK?

The UK’s City minister John Glen said earlier in November that an agreement over the post-Brexit future for financial services would be secured “imminently”. That should give UK-based financial services firms continued access to EU markets after Brexit so long as they continue to operate under equivalent rules to those in effect in Europe.

That seems like good news...

Not so fast.

Financial services firms will have to operate under the EU’s framework for non-members, where its regulators declare rules equivalent but only on a piecemeal basis.

The UK has said it will seek to address these shortcomings but it is not yet clear if the EU will accept the suggestions.

And, if May fails to get UK politicians to back her Brexit deal, talks could collapse and any agreement in relation to financial services would not come into effect.

Banks including JP Morgan, Bank of America and Citigroup are already shifting jobs and assets to the EU so that they can continue to serve European clients regardless.

How will markets react?

The pound jumped around 1.4% to trade at $1.30 against the dollar amid optimism that the final terms of a Brexit deal could be agreed.

But S&P, the ratings agency, has warned that a disorderly exit from the EU could cost the UK around £130bn of economic growth. In such a scenario, the pound is likely to depreciate rapidly in value as well

To contact the authors of this story with feedback or news, email Lucy McNulty and Emily Horton