Brexit presents a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to throw off the “straitjacket” of European Union trade policy and embrace new markets for Britain’s financial sector, lobbying group TheCityUK said in a report released on Tuesday.

It said the EU’s trade deals “date back to an era before the current trends and potential changes in the balance of power in the global economy“, and pointed out that roughly 90 per cent of economic growth in the next ten to 15 years is expected to be generated outside Europe.

“Trade and investment are the conveyor belt that will link the UK to the new global growth centres and be a unique source of productivity gains,” the report said.

The report highlighted that the UK is the world's largest exporter of financial services, with exports worth £77.5bn and a trade surplus of £69bn in 2015.

The sector - which includes banking, insurance, accountancy and asset management - employs more than 2.2 million people and accounts for about 11 per cent of UK tax receipts.

“It follows that, in TheCityUK's view, no UK trade or investment agreement should be concluded without these interests being addressed fully and satisfactorily.”

The report represents a significant softening of the rhetoric coming from the financial lobby, many sectors of which had previously issued doom-laden prophecies of the industry’s future outside the EU.

In January CityUK dropped its previous demand to maintain passporting rights that allow UK finance firms to sell services freely across the continent, instead opting to back an “equivalence” deal which would allow access if the UK maintains similar regulatory standards to the EU. The passport was almost certainly incompatible with Prime Minister Theresa May’s commitment to leave the single market.

The change in stance will come as some relief to Ms May who was reportedly on the end of “tough talk” from Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein at the World Economic Forum in Davos over her Government’s perceived unwillingness to back the UK’s financial sector.

Several senior banking executives spoke openly in Davos about their plans to move thousands of jobs out of the UK to other European cities.

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HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver said trading operations that generate about 20 per cent of revenue for its investment bank in London may move to Paris.

JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon told Bloomberg it looked like more jobs than he’d hoped for would be affected, while the president of UBS’ investment bank, Andrea Orcel, said he would “definitely have to move” jobs from London.

has stopped short of urging the Government to maintain passporting rights, which gives financial services open access to the EU's single market.