DAVOS: Two of Europe’s biggest banks warned they could each move around 1,000 jobs out of London, in the clearest sign yet of how financial firms are preparing for disruption caused by Britain’s exit from the European Union.
UBS Chairman Axel Weber said around 1,000 of the Swiss bank’s 5,000 employees based in London could be affected by Brexit, while HSBC Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver said the bank will relocate staff responsible for generating around a fifth of its UK-based trading revenue to Paris.
Major financial firms warned for months before Britain’s referendum on European Union membership in June that they would move jobs out of the country if there was a vote to leave, but have set out few details since on how many will go or where to.
“We will move in about two years time when Brexit becomes effective,” the bank’s Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver told Reuters at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
And in another potentially damaging blow to London’s status as Europe’s main financial centre, UBS’s Weber told the BBC in Davos that 1,000 staff working in businesses that would be hit by Britain losing its ‘passport’ to sell financial services in Europe would be affected.
Other banks are expected to announce more concrete plans for how they will adapt to Brexit in the coming months after Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed in a speech on Tuesday that Britain would leave the European single market.
HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank, is at an advantage to its major US rivals as it already has a large subsidiary in Paris that holds most of the licences needed by an investment bank, meaning Gulliver has been able to set out more detailed plans.
It is expected to move around 1,000 staff who are involved in trading products such as European stocks that are regulated by the EU.
HSBC’s global banking and markets division that houses those roles made profits of US$384 million in the UK in 2015, according to a company filing. — Reuters