TheCityUK, a London-based advocacy group representing Britain’s financial and professional services sector, has retained government consulting firm Eris Group to advocate on behalf of the UK lobbying body in Washington on foreign trade policies.

According to lobbying registration documents filed in September, EG will represent the private-sector group on matters related to the Brexit as well as US-UK economic and trade policies.

TheCityUK

A report commissioned earlier this year by TheCityUK, which assessed the Brexit’s impact on Britain’s financial services sector, found that most UK-based financial services firms want to keep as much of their activities in the UK as possible and would prefer that some solution be negotiated enabling EU and UK firms to access each other’s markets in light of last year’s shocking referendum to leave the European Union.

The report also found that financial services comprise the UK’s largest exporting industry — with an annual trade surplus of around £72 billion — and that the sector accounts for about 11.5 percent of total UK tax receipts and employs 7.3 percent of the UK’s working population.

The account will be led by Doyle Bartlett, former chief of staff to Rep. Bill McCollum (R-FL); and Chris McCannell, who was previously chief of staff to former Brooklyn/Staten Island Congressman Mike McMahon (D-NY) and Democratic Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY), as well as a press secretary to Democratic whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Rep. Paul Kanjorkski (D-PA).

Eris Group, formerly known as Bartlett & Bendall, counts Western Union, Nike, PayPal, TransUnion, PCI and the U.S. Travel Association as clients.