Brexit: HSBC may move 1.000 staff from London to Paris

The top boss of HSBC, Stuart Gulliver, has said it is planning to move some staff from London to Paris following Britain’s exit from the European Union.

Speaking from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Gulliver said in an interview Bloomberg Television that "about 1,000 jobs which are carrying out activities which are covered by European legislation… would probably need, in our case, to go to France".

While Gulliver had in the past already hinted at such a switch of investment banking jobs, his comments appeared more precise as he suggested France would take precedence over other EU nations.

"We bought Credit Commercial de France in 2002, so we have a full service universal bank in France. And so for us, it's France."

Despite signalling jobs would move, Gulliver was upbeat on London's continuing dominance as a European financial centre.

He said: "I think irrespective of Brexit which is a decision the British people have made so we need to get on and execute it that, actually London will remain a global financial centre, and I believe the revenue impact of Brexit on financial services will be made good in two or three years’ time.

The uncertainty around the future of foreign staff in the UK, now, it's the big question now. "So the bigger issue, as you say, is about EU nationals, because we have about 2,100 EU nationals working for us in the UK and we have about 1,300 non-EU nationals working for us in the UK under work permits, so the evolution of the work permit immigration policy is of considerable interest because, clearly, we want to be able to get the best possible people," Gulliver said.

"But I don't get any sense from the Prime Minister's speech that she isn't looking to create an environment where we can employ the best possible people from anywhere in the world in the UK."