Staff planning not Brexit-reliant

US banking giant Citi plans to keep the vast majority of its 9,000 strong workforce in the UK which ever way the Brexit negotiations pan out.

The group’s local government liaison said that the bank planned to add 150 employees to its EU operations, but that it would be done through hiring rather than a shift of British employees.

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

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

When asked if the outcome of Brexit negotiations could spark larger relocations of staff from the UK, Houmann suggested larger trends were at play.

He said that the central causes of any further moves were “not directly on Brexit”.

He added: “Our goal is to be ready to serve our European clients and our plans are very much under way to do that.”

An internal memo sent out to Citi staff last year said that the bank Citi planned to convert its Frankfurt office, which currently houses 350 staff ,to a broker-dealer entity, adding to its existing 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.”