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JPMorgan is relocating hundreds on bankers in London to Dublin, Frankfurt and Luxembourg because of Brexit.
Daniel Pinto, head of investment banking at JPM, told Bloomberg in an interview that the banking giant plans to move “hundreds of people†to the three offices in the European Union in order to be prepared for if Britain leaves the Single Market.
“We are going to use the three banks we already have in Europe as the anchors for our operations,†said Pinto.
“We will have to move hundreds of people in the short term to be ready for day one, when negotiations finish, and then we will look at the longer-term numbers.
“We have to plan for a scenario where there is no UK-EU passporting deal, and we have to move a substantial portion of our business to continue serving our European clients. We’ll have to wait to see what kind of deal can be achieved and see what we need to do from there.â€
The loss of passporting rights seems almost a certainty under Prime Minister Theresa May’s “hard Brexit†plan — the loss of membership of the EU’s Single Market in exchange for complete control over immigration.
We have to plan for a scenario where there is no UK-EU passporting deal
If the passport is taken away, London could cease to be the most important financial centre in Europe, costing the UK thousands of jobs and billions in revenue. Around 5,500 firms registered in the UK rely on the European Union’s passporting rights for the financial services sector, and they turn over about £9 billion in revenue.
This is one of the biggest fears in the City.
It is has subsequently led to global investment banks, such as Citigroup, HSBC and JPMorgan signalling job moves to continental Europe from London. Last month, Lloyd’s of London said it would open a subsidiary in the heart of the EU, the day after Prime Minister Theresa May began talks to take the UK out of the 28-state trading bloc.
In March, Lloyd’s of London — the city’s 329-year-old insurance market — said it would open a subsidiary in the heart of the European Union to counter Brexit effects.
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