By its nature, finance is about ups and downs, and adapting to changing fortunes. May said the city will take whatever happens in stride.

"There will be a recalibration－institutions are nimble and proactive and will take decisions in advance to mitigate the effect, that's the nature of financial services," he said.

"Everyone I speak to is being pragmatic; if part of London's success in the last 30 years has been based on its relationship with the EU, what will the next 30 years be like? To me, those are the interesting conversations."

May even said that the way the city has already dealt with pre-Brexit points at how the economy will handle whatever lies ahead.

"London has some great advantages, which will remain true after Brexit but what will change is the regulatory and legal relationship," he said. "In fact, the number of people in the financial services sector is now greater than before the referendum. That shows that whilst London benefits from the single market, it's not contingent on it."