Despite fears in the financial sector, Brexit ‘won’t harm UK banks’, say analysts

FEWER than 5 000 financial jobs might move out of Britain by “Day One” of Brexit and future relocations will depend on new trading terms with the EU, Bank of England deputy governor Sam Woods said yesterday.

“We have had an estimate for some time now of 5 000 to 10 000 jobs, which you can think of as half to 1 percent of jobs there are in this country in the relevant sector,” Woods told Bloomberg in an interview.

“So a relatively small move on Day One. I think it will be at the bottom end of that range. If anything, it might be slightly below that.”

His estimate chimes with the City of London financial district, whose leader Catherine McGuinness told parliament on Tuesday that she expects between 3 500 and 12 000 financial jobs to go in the short term because of Brexit.

Britain leaves the bloc next March and many banks have applied for licences to open or expand hubs in the EU to avoid ruptures in customer links.

Woods, in charge of supervising Britain’s banks and insurers, said further job moves will depend on how the EU responds to the British government’s proposals for trading relations in financial services.

He reiterated a call for the EU authorities to reciprocate action being taken by Britain to ensure legal continuity in trillions of pounds in cross-border derivatives and insurance contracts.

Brussels has said it was up to the private sector to sort out uncertainty over contract continuity. – Reuters