Speculation that a Brexit financial services job crisis could be in our midst have been downplayed after HSBC became the latest bank to change its warning of an exodus.
The Bank of England this week released a warning that up to 75,000 jobs could be lost in financial services following Britain’s departure from the European Union.
The cautionary advice comes after Goldman Sachs agreed to lease 10,000 square metres of office space in Franfurt and JP Morgan planned to shift some services from London to Germany.
Location specific regulations, such as where trading in trillions of pounds worth of euro-denominated financial insurance products has to be based, could be imposed by the EU post-Brexit, which would likely shift jobs to Paris or Frankfurt.
But the BoE warnings could have been inflated, according to industry experts, after HSBC became just one of a few banks to change its warning of a Brexit exodus.
The UK-based lender’s finance director Iain Mackay said the total “may be less than 1,000 employees”, with Swiss bank UBS echoing similar sentiment.
Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein was also sounding a more emollient tone about the UK during a visit to London, Sky News reported.
He posted a tweet saying “GS still investing in our big new Euro headquarters here. Expecting/hoping to fill it up, but so much outside our control.”
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