On the one hand, the knowledge of a ‘transition period’ does provide a measure of comfort to both regulators and market participants. On the other hand, as the transition phase only comes into effect if there is a withdrawal agreement, and the EU27 does not have the same legislative backstop as the UK18.
Therefore, we still must know what we are going to do in the event of a hard Brexit in March 2019. We still expect firms to continue to prepare for all plausible contingencies, including the eventuality that the transition period is not finally agreed on account of the overall uncertainty of the negotiations.