Firms preparing to leave UK before EU exit: Banking boss

london — The head of the British Bankers’ Association has warned that financial firms are planning to start leaving London within weeks because of uncertainty about the UK’s exit from the European Union.

Chief executive Anthony Browne said in an article published on Sunday that banks fear EU politicians will erect trade barriers with Britain in a bid to undermine the City of London, currently Europe’s preeminent financial district. They also fear UK-based financial firms will lose the right to conduct business across the bloc.

Browne wrote in The Observer newspaper that bankers’ “hands are quivering over the relocate button.” He said “many smaller banks plan to start relocations before Christmas; bigger banks are expected to start in the first quarter of next year.”

Browne said tariffs would hurt both Britain and the EU, but that economic

Many smaller banks plan to start relocations before Christmas; bigger banks are expected to start in the first quarter of next year

Anthony Browne, head of the British Bankers’ Association

arguments might lose out amid hardening political rhetoric from both sides. He said national governments might “try to use the EU exit negotiations to build walls across the Channel to split Europe’s integrated financial market in two, in order to force jobs from London.”

Prime Minister Theresa May has repeatedly said that “Brexit means Brexit,” suggesting her government is unwilling to compromise to keep Britain within the EU’s single market. —