Theresa May&s;s withdrawal agreement on Britain&s;s departure from the European Union (E.U.) was voted down for the second time by the House of Commons on Tuesday.
On Wednesday evening, Commons will vote on whether Britain&a;nbsp;can leave the E.U. without a deal. And then on Thursday, assuming they vote against a &s;no deal&s; Brexit as is widely expected, another vote will be held on extending the current leave date of 29th March. Some believe&a;nbsp;the extension opens the door for another referendum on Brexit.
But how&a;nbsp;is the City - London&s;s financial community - and British business weighing up these outcomes?
&l;strong&g;Delayed Brexit&l;/strong&g;
Currently, the U.K. will leave the E.U. on 29th March, deal or no deal. However, pending a vote&a;nbsp;to delay Brexit on Thursday, the U.K. may have to ask the E.U. for an extension. It is then up to the E.U. to decide how long an extension is needed.
But&a;nbsp;a delayed Brexit is not a Brexit solved, as May told parliament after her defeat on Tuesday. A decision on Brexit will still need to take place and many believe further delay will just fuel more economic uncertainty.
&q;&l;span class=&q;s1&q;&g;The greater concern for the economy and markets is the unending uncertainty of what comes next&q;,&a;nbsp;&l;/span&g;says&a;nbsp;&l;span class=&q;s1&q;&g;Dean Turner the U.K. economist for UBS Wealth Management, a Swiss bank.&a;nbsp;&l;/span&g;
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), a business lobby group, says&a;nbsp;business &q;remains shackled by Brexit&q;, as&a;nbsp;continued uncertainty keeps investment back.
Real estate investors are also withholding funds. Brookfield, a Canadian asset manager had been looking to buy Intu, a&a;nbsp;British Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). People close to the deal&a;nbsp;said Brexit uncertainty was the reason for the deal falling through, according to the &l;em&g;FT&l;/em&g;.
&l;strong&g;Second Referendum&a;nbsp;&l;/strong&g;
Another referendum on whether Britain should be part of the E.U. is not currently on the government&s;s or parliament&s;s&a;nbsp;agenda and is, therefore, the least likely option here.
However, for those who are against Brexit, a second referendum seems the best way to stop it. Open Britain, a pro-European Union campaign&a;nbsp;group, is organizing a demonstration &s;Put It To The People&s; on Saturday that will call for a second referendum.
The idea has also gained backing from the opposition Labour party in the last few weeks, as well as The Independence Group, a group of M.Ps who resigned from the Labour party.
But another referendum on Britain&s;s membership of the E.U. is not a solution to Brexit either. People&s;s attitudes to the E.U. are varied, according to polls. In January, YouGov, a pollster, found 47 percent of the&a;nbsp;1,754 people it&a;nbsp;surveyed thought Britain was &q;wrong to vote to leave the European Union&q;, less than those that voted to remain in 2016.
&l;strong&g;No Deal&l;/strong&g;
Following the defeat of the withdrawal agreement, many believe a no deal Brexit&a;nbsp;is edging closer, as the U.K. approaches&a;nbsp;it&s;s leave date without a deal.
On Wednesday, business leaders were finally given clarity on what a no deal Brexit will look like. Tariffs would be&a;nbsp;eliminated from 87 percent of imports, according to U.K. officials. Some agricultural products, such as British lamb and ceramics, will be among the 10 percent of products protected by tariffs.
Steve Barclay, an M.P., called these tariffs a &q;modest liberalization&q; of the U.K&s;s economy, pointing out that currently 80 percent of the British economy is tariff-free.
For most in the City, however, it is the removal of &s;passporting&s; that posses the biggest threat.&a;nbsp;Currently, passporting allows British firms to trade financial services across the E.U. The withdrawal agreement would allow that to continue under a two-year&a;nbsp;transitional arrangement. A no deal Brexit would not, however.
&l;span class=&q;s1&q;&g;&q;&l;/span&g;&l;span class=&q;s1&q;&g;In such a scenario, there will be a competitive flurry in the market across Europe, as wealth managers will try to poach clients across different jurisdictions to comply with local market norms,&q;&l;/span&g; s&l;a href=&q;https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverwilliams1/2019/02/28/bankers-are-on-standby-b-list-if-theres-a-no-deal-brexit/#3ee60390564c&q;&g;ays Udit Garg, head of wealth management at Sun Global Investments.&l;/a&g;
Already, 269 firms in the banking and finance industry have relocated part of their business to another country in the E.U., &l;a href=&q;https://newfinancial.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2019.03-New-Financial-Brexitometer-EXT-HIGH-RES.pdf&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;according to a report this week by New Financial, a think tank&l;/a&g;.
Most in the business and financial community have long been&a;nbsp;making preparations against all three Brexit scenarios listed here in order to minimalize their impact. However, most also hope for an end to the current impasse so they can return to business as usual.
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