British exit from EU a ‘big mistake’, top US boss warns

A BRITISH exit from the European Union would be a “big mistake” and could jeopardise London’s position as a major financial centre, a leading US boss warned today.

Dan Glaser (pictured) is chief executive of the professional-services giant Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC), which is headquartered in New York but employs almost 7000 people in the UK.

He told the Evening Standard: “When I worked in London back in the 1980s, people used to talk about whether London or Frankfurt was the financial capital of Europe.

“Now that battle has been won and it’s the joint financial capital of the world alongside New York,” Glaser said.

However, with a referendum on Brittain’s membership of the 28- bloc set for as early as next year, he added: “I absolutely think it would be a big mistake economically, politically and strategically for the UK to leave the EU.”

MMC’s divisions include the insurance broker Marsh and consultancy Oliver Wyman.

Glaser, who is in the UK to pick up the BritishAmerican Business Corporate Citizenship Award, also warned that cyber security is the “biggest man-made risk issue of our time”.

According to a recent Marsh report, 81% of large businesses in the UK and 60% of small businesses suffered a cyber-security breach during the last year with the average cost of breaches nearly doubling since 2013. He added: “These breaches are happening all across the world and can manifest themselves not only economically but also physically with things like critical infrastructure, power grids and dams under threat. There could be some pretty disastrous

results.”