As you could see in the truncated reading below, this is not Laos leaving the ASEAN, which has absolutely nothing worthy of the intelligence, aspirations, or visions of the people of SE Asia. ASEAN is just a loosely collection of extremely different countries EACH saying, more or less, We butcher our own and you yours, and no one has the right to tell anyone what to do or not to do.
THAT is no organization or association of any kind.
Remember, the POINT to ORGANIZING any group or association that is larger than the individual and family unit === be it a community, a city state, a nation, or a collection of many nations === is to distribute and re-distribute resources, responsibility, ideas.... the bad and the good... so that even the weakest can still enjoy life and living while the richest and most powerful can't just take what they want...
The Swiss will see soon how "independent" they really are... when over 60% of their livelihood, in actuality, is trading with the EU people and nation.
And then those elderly English men and women will find out afterward, as to how tough it is to make yourself "independent" from the EU === a market of around 500M people/consumers === when they DON'T NEED YOU, just one nation of less than 50M, when all is said and done, in the next 2-5 years...in order to prosper but YOU NEED THEM in order to prosper...
Both Paris and Berlin would like to get a good chunk of those international banks from London, and they will play hard ball: that Britain CAN'T make demands on enjoying the EU as a single markets for its products but NOT get dictated to in terms of immigration, etc.
Of course, there are Russia and China for trading partners! Britain don't need the stupid, dictatorial EU! LOL
http://www.reuters.com/article/britain-eu-banking-idUSL8N19N4CU?feedType=RSS
LONDON, July 1 A week after Britons voted themselves out of the European Union, many London-based bankers and their employers face two options if they are to secure their futures: lobby or leave.
Some investment banks, anxious not to stir speculation of an exodus from the historic City of London and its modern counterpart at Canary Wharf, have given out "business as usual" messages since last week's shock referendum result.
But beyond the soothing words the wider industry is hastily organising a lobbying effort in the hope London can keep selling financial services across Europe, a right to which it has become accustomed but may lapse when Britain finally exits the 28-nation bloc.
The alternative for banks and bankers, growing increasingly insecure in an information vacuum that has developed since the June 23 vote, is to get out. Headhunters report a level of anxious calls they haven't seen since the 2008 global crisis, with bankers asking about prospects in rival financial centres that remain in the EU, or those in Asia and the United States.
Banks and other financial firms have rallied together, forming a group to devise a strategy for protecting the turf of an industry that is Britain's biggest exporter and accounts for more than 10 percent of its tax revenues.
Even Britain's biggest lenders are relying on the group - led by Shriti Vadera, chairwoman of the UK arm of Spain's Banco Santander who is also a former business minister - for guidance in such uncertain times.
"We are looking to them to have an intelligent response," Barclays chairman John McFarlane told an industry event on Thursday. "We neither know the shape or direction of things to come. It's far from certain what we might be able to secure from discussions with the EU."
With the British government in disarray, European politicians are threatening to clip the wings of the London financial centre that is home to more than 250 foreign banks and more than three-quarters of the EU's capital markets activity.
French President Francois Hollande has backed calls for London, the world's biggest currency trading centre, to lose its right to clear deals denominated in euros. Likewise, the right of banks based in Britain to operate across the EU under the bloc's financial "passporting" arrangement could also go if it loses access to the single European market.