Pound jumps after Irish-UK meeting

Sterling jumped against the euro and the dollar, and Irish bank shares surged, after a meeting of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Liverpool revived hopes of a deal to unlock the Brexit impasse.

Since the UK voted over three years ago to leave the EU, sterling’s exchange rate has acted as a barometer of fears that the UK would crash out without striking any sort of transition deal.