One Euro for One Pound Britons Abroad Already Know What Pound-Euro Parity Feels Like

When U.K. businessman Paul Frampton bought the spending money for his family vacation to Tuscany this month, he was astonished to be charged almost a pound for each euro he purchased.

“I was flabbergasted,” said the 41-year-old media-company boss, who paid 97 pence per euro at London Stansted Airport and blamed work commitments for having to do the deal minutes before jumping on his flight. “Airport exchanges are renowned for poor rates, but this was tantamount to daylight robbery.”

Euro-sterling parity is a reality that wholesale traders, as well as Britons traveling abroad, are going to have to get used to as soon as next year if forecasts by HSBC Holdings Plc and UBS Group AG are to be believed. A one-for-one exchange rate would be a first for the pound. And even with a 12 percent slide since the Brexit vote, the U.K. currency is still some way from its all-time low of 98.03 pence per euro reached in the depths of the global financial crisis in 2008. Read More…