An official from the European Banking Authority has let slip that it intends to move its offices from London "not tomorrow, not in two weeks, but over the next two years."

Further details have not been forthcoming, with the EBA press office declining even to say how many people are in its building and how many of them are British. Reuters, however, has reported that the mystery official also said: "The multi-currency union narrative is over. That's why you will see the European Banking Authority going either to Paris or to Frankfurt." This mysterious phrase could mean that the EU's tolerance of countries under its aegis not joining the Euro is over and that only the Franco-German bloc that rules the EU can be trusted to host this most important of supranational regulators. At present 19 of the 28 EU member-states use the Euro, leaving eight (excluding Britain) to face the ECB's apparent wrath. A further, intriguing possibility presents itself: if the EU is going to tell all non-Euro member-countries to enter Euroland, will it expel those who refuse? If so, 'Brexodus' might turn into a continental avalanche.