Markets
20/12/2021

Slowdown In Migration Of London Banking Jobs To EU Despite Brexit




Despite billions of euros in stock trading shifting to the European Union and London giving  up majority of its access to capital markets of the EU, the number of jobs in finance sector migrating away from the UK to the EU as a result of Brexit is lower than previously projected, according to consultants EY.
 
Following Britain's vote to leave the EU in 2016, analysts such as Oliver Wyman predicted that up to 35,000 financial sector jobs would be lost.
 
Last December, Britain officially exited the EU, ending the City of London's free access to its largest single export consumer.
 
"However, over the last year, a number of the largest investment banks located in the UK have revised down the number of staff that will be relocated to the EU, taking the current number of Brexit-related job move announcements to just under 7,400, down from 7,600 in December 2020," EY said in its latest Brexit tracker.
 
This is a small percentage of the 1.1 million individuals employed in the finance industry.
 
According to EY, there have been roughly 2,800 new hiring in the EU as a result of Brexit, avoiding the need to relocate some personnel from London. There have also been 2,200 financial roles created in the UK.
 
However, according to EY, EU regulators are continuing to put pressure on financial businesses to complete staffing and operational shifts to the EU that have been stalled due to the pandemic.
 
The European Central Bank does not want to wind up with London-based hubs.
 
Dublin and Luxembourg are still the most preferred post-Brexit destinations for new EU centres, according to EY, however Paris has seen the most personnel relocations.
 
Over the Channel, assets worth 1.3 trillion pounds have migrated to the hubs.
 
"For many financial services firms, we are still far from being fully 'post-Brexit'," said Omar Ali, EMEIA's financial services leader at EY.
 
Even though there has been a modest development on euro clearing, Brussels has yet to sign off on a new negotiation forum for financial regulators that was established in principle in December and is considered by industry as critical to rebuilding cross-Channel trust. find out more
 
Miles Celic, CEO of TheCityUK, a company that promotes the UK's financial centre abroad, believes it is time to focus on long-term competitive characteristics.
 
Britain has been revising its laws in order to make London more appealing to overseas investors and to better compete with EU centres such as Amsterdam, which surpassed London as Europe's largest share trading centre in January.
 
(Source:www.reuters.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell
In the same section