Britain's forthcoming draft financial services law will reset the sector after Brexit and sharpen its competitive advantage, UK financial services minister John Glen said on Thursday.

Britain's 260 billion pound ($317 billion) financial services sector was largely cut off from the European Union after Brexit, leaving the government under pressure to boost London's global appeal as a financial centre.

A draft law is due this month, containing a string of reforms to insurance and capital markets.

"I am confident that this framework, this legislative platform, will be the start of a new era for financial services in the UK," Glen told TheCityUK's annual conference.

Glen said that regulators will have a new objective to aid the sector's competitiveness, a step that has raised concerns among some lawmakers.

Critics have expressed fears that this could bring a return of the so-called light-touch era that ended with banks being bailed out, but Glen maintained that it will not signal a retreat from global norms.

"It is time to put to bed the idea that the EU will have grounds to deny the UK accesss because of our poor regulatory standards," he said.

($1 = 0.8232 pounds)

(Reporting by Huw Jones, Editing by David Goodman)