US banking giant stays loyal to UK

US BANKING giant Citi plans to keep the vast majority of its 9,000-strong workforce in the UK, regardless of how Brexit talks pan out.

The group will pepper its EU operations with an extra 150 staff, but is set to bolster offices through a hiring spree rather than a shift of British employees, its local government liaison has assured.

It is understood that job moves will stay in the single digits.

“We’re moving some roles and will create several,” Alan Houmann, head of government affairs for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said.

When asked whether the outcome of Brexit negotiations could spark a larger raft of relocations, he suggested larger trends were at play and that the central causes of any further moves were “not directly on Brexit”.

“Our goal is to be ready to serve our European clients and our plans are very much under way to do that,” Mr Houmann said.

The broader banking sector has been looking at moving staff closer to clients, with some taking advantage of outsourcing opportunities for back office operations.

An internal memo sent to staff last year explained that Citi was planning to convert its Frankfurt office, which currently houses 350 staff to a brokerdealer entity, adding to its current broker dealer operations in Dublin.

“Frankfurt makes a lot of sense for us. We know Germany well, we’ve been there for decades, know and have experience dealing with the regulator.”

Citi, which has already submitted its licence application to the German regulator, is expecting to see the new broker dealer up and running by the end of the year.

While the bulk of new roles will be allocated to the German office, staff will also be hired to work in cities including Paris, Madrid, Milan, Amsterdam and Dublin.

The Wall Street giant’s liaison was happy with the way the UK Government has been engaging with the financial services sector, adding “there’s no lack of conversations, whatsoever”. “We feel like we’re being heard. As an industry, and the committees I chair... we’ve done a ton of work, so we’re just churning out evidence in the hope that there’s such a thing as evidence-based policy making, and it’s all going to the appropriate people.”

Citi currently employs about 9,000 staff in the UK, 6,000 of whom are based in the City of London.

‘Our goal is to be ready to serve our European clients’