Banks preparing to leave UK over Brexit, says banking body chief executive
LONDON, (Reuters) - Big international banks are preparing to move some of their operations out of Britain in early 2017 due to the uncertainty over the country’s future relationship with the European Union, a top banking official said.
Writing in the Observer newspaper, Anthony Browne, the chief executive of lobby group the British Bankers’ Association, said the public and political debate was “taking us in the wrong direction” and businesses could not wait until the last minute. “Most international banks now have project teams working out which operations they need to move to ensure they can continue serving customers, the date by which this must happen, and how best to do it,” said Browne.
“Their hands are quivering over the relocate button. Many smaller banks plan to start relocations before Christmas; bigger banks are expected to start in the first quarter of next year.”
Many of the world’s major banks have their European headquarters in Britain, where the financial sector employs more than two million people and makes up almost 12 percent of the economy.
Banks in London depend on a European “passport” to serve clients across the 28-country European Union from one base and lenders worry that this right will end after Brexit.
Browne said while finance minister Philip Hammond and Brexit minister David Davis were “making the right noises”, he was concerned that some high-profile Brexit supporters believed banks did not need passporting and could rely on socalled equivalence, under which the EU can allow access to its markets for countries whose regulations are similar to the bloc’s. “The EU’s equivalence regime is a poor shadow of passporting, it only covers a narrow range of services, can be withdrawn at virtually no notice, and will probably mean the UK will have to accept rules it has no influence over,” he said. Jamaica, there was no incident on Flight BW415, and I did not disembark in Trinidad,” he stated.
“I developed medical complications in the cell, which includes swollen feet, and was ignored when I asked for medical attention. I have also been having backaches which may be as a result of sleeping on the concrete slab and not being given my prescribed medications routinely for my predisposed conditions. The experience has been having a debilitating effect on my well-being, which includes flashbacks and nightmare, serious damage to my character and reputation as I have never been cautioned nor arrested.”
When the Sunday Observer contacted the Jamaican office of Caribbean Airlines, the call was transferred to the head office in Trinidad where the paper was asked to send an e-mail outlining the issue.
A day later, Head of Corporate Communications Dionne Ligoure stated that the matter would be investigated.
“I would need to investigate these allegations before any response can be offered. I will be in contact with you next week,” Ligoure said.
There was no immediate response from Jamaica’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.