Forget Project Fear... top German banker says City will stay No 1

ONE of Europe’s most senior bankers yesterday insisted that the City of London will remain the continent’s long-term financial hub, pouring cold water on claims that it will suffer after Brexit.

Andreas Dombret, a director of the Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, dismissed suggestions that huge numbers of UK-based bankers were preparing to desert Britain after the split.

‘I believe that London will continue to stay the eminent financial centre of this region no matter how many bankers should move,’ he said. ‘I hear that there is quite some reluctance in the City of London for people to move. There is a big willingness to stay in London and some of those who have been asked to go would rather take a cheque and stay than move.’

Brussels has insisted that British banks will lose their ‘financial passports’, which effectively allow them to operate across the EU.

The threat of changes in the sector had led to claims that tens of thousands of jobs would be lost in the UK as banks undertook a so-called ‘Brexodus’.

Despite concerns about whether the Square Mile will be fully incorporated into a Brexit trade deal, Dr Dombret, 58, said that German business is pushing for close ties to the UK.

‘For Germany, it is really important that the German companies, including the large companies that you all know, have access to this kind of financial services.

‘Whether or not those banks then licence out of Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt or Dublin is of secondary concern. It’s important that we have access to this in a competitive way.’

Although the Government reached agreement on the Brexit transitional deal last month, Mr Dombret said it was not guaranteed. ‘We need to hope for the best but prepare for the worst,’ he said. ‘It’s not 100 per cent sure that we will have a transition period.’