LONDON (REUTERS) - Britain will have leverage in talks with the European Union over so-called "passporting" rights, which allow financial services to be sold into the EU states from London, Brexit minister David Davis told parliament on Monday.

"Actually, we issue more passports than we seek," Davis said citing figures used by another lawmaker earlier in a parliamentary debate. "As a result, our negotiating leverage in this area is at least reasonable."

Warning financial firms against "rashly" pre-empting the outcome of Britain's EU negotiations by moving staff overseas, he said the finance ministry had been considering alternative arrangements to allow the sale of financial services across EU borders.

"The Treasury has already had a roundtable on specifically this issue and looked very clearly at mutual recognition and various mechanisms of mutual recognition as a fallback on passporting," he said.