Barclays has settled on Dublin for its main hub inside the EU after Brexit, and is planning to add about 150 staff here if UK-based finance companies lose easy access to the trading bloc, according to Bloomberg sources.
It is believed the bank started scouting the city for office space this month, and has been in contact with regulators here about expanding its operations.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Britain should look to Switzerland on how to handle relations with the European Union, for a post-Brexit model of "close co-operation", according to Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung (NZZ) on Sunday.
"Britons should take as an example how cleverly Switzerland has linked national sovereignty and close cooperation with the European Union," he said, Britain needed a "wise political solution" to Brexit added.
A series of bilateral deals have been struck between Switzerland and the EU meaning it accepts free movement of people and certain rules on trade.
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.
UK’s powerhouse financial sector would face heightened risk and an exodus of 232,000 jobs without certainty over Britain’s Brexit deal, MPs in the House of Commons have heard. Xavier Rolet, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSE), said two thirds of the job losses would be felt outside Greater London, with the blow coming as soon as the euro clearing operation leaves Britain’s shores.
Speaking to MPs on the Treasury Select Committee, Mr Rolet said the jobs figure came from a report produced by professional services firm EY for the LSE, which not only took into account the “few thousand” jobs lost from euro clearing itself, but the entire impact on financial services if the operation was moved outside the UK.
Fund manager Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management (EdRam) is to withdraw from the UK retail market less than a year after launching an ambitious expansion programme.
A spokesperson confirmed that the firm, which opened its London office in 2012, is looking to pull back from the UK despite its recent expansion drive in the country.
A number of roles will be shifted from London to Paris, Luxembourg and Geneva although there will be redundancies, including its UK head of wholesale Daniel Lee, who joined in September 2015 from Allianz.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan downplayed concerns that London will suffer in the wake of Brexit, telling CNBC in an interview that European Union citizens "are welcome" in the city and "that’s not going to change."
Khan has vowed to “DEFY Brexit” by working on proposals for London-only work visas, not because he and the city’s business leaders believe this would help buttress its economy in the uncertain years ahead, but simply in order to “maintain the number of migrants entering London”.
He told CNBC that one of their main concerns is to continue to attract talent post-Brexit. Among other advantages, Britain is hoping to retain access to Europe’s common market, which currently requires the country to allow free movement of E.U. citizens across borders.
UK business schools have trumped their European rivals, according to the Financial Times European Business School Ranking 2016, giving them strength after the tumult of Brexit.
London Business School topped the FT’s table for the third year on the trot, although continental rivals are close behind, with HEC Paris and INSEAD of France in second and third place.
Britain’s biggest banks are preparing to move out of the country in early 2017 because of fears over the impending Brexit negotiations as Anthony Browne, chief executive of the British Bankers Association, said in an interview published by The Observer on Sunday.
The CEO cited fears the European Union politicians will want to erect trade barriers during the Brexit negotiation as a reason for the planned moves. So rather than risk weakening the strength of the City of London’s financial prowess during negotiations, a number of companies are preparing to move wholesale.
