LONDON - Britain and the European Union are on course to agree a deal on regulatory cooperation in financial services this month, but the UK's action in Northern Ireland makes it harder to build trust, the bloc's financial services chief said on Thursday.

"We are on track," Mairead McGuinness told a Politico event.

The British government unilaterally extended a grace period for checks on food imports to Northern Ireland, a move Brussels said violated terms of Britain's divorce deal.

"Things like that don't help build trust," McGuinness said.

(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Alex Richardson) ((huw.jones@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 542 3326; Reuters Messaging: huw.jones.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))