By Max Colchester and Nicholas Winning 

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May met Thursday with the chief executives of several Wall Street banks, following further warnings by lenders that they would shift jobs out of London to continental Europe after Brexit.

Mrs. May met with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Chairman James Dimon, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein and Morgan Stanley Chief Executive James Gorman in a meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, according to people familiar with the matter.

The executives talked with Mrs. May about implementation periods and the status of some of their decision making, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Some executives discussed how moving certain functions such as trading out of London would also mean moving compliance and other staff, the person said.

Downing Street declined to confirm whom the prime minister had met, saying the meeting with representatives of financial services companies was private. A spokesman did confirm that Mrs. May had met with senior representatives of other companies including Siemens AG, British Telecom PLC, and WPP PLC, during her visit to the Swiss town.

Earlier Thursday, Mrs. May delivered a speech at the Davos gathering where she emphasized that Britain was open for business. The message comes two days after the prime minister confirmed that the U.K. would be leaving the European single market and wanted to be excluded from parts of the bloc's customs union.

Since the U.K.'s June vote to leave the European Union, banks have been drawing up contingency plans to ensure that they can still service clients inside the trading bloc once the U.K. departs.

Mrs. May said earlier in the week that her government would push for a transition period after the Brexit deal was reached. Several bank executives welcomed having more time to adjust their operations. Wall Street employs thousands of people across the U.K.

In Davos, several bank chiefs said they would continue to wait and see how Brexit negotiations progressed before making definitive decisions on whether and how many staff to move from Britain.

Executives at UBS AG said that around 1,000 jobs in the U.K. would be affected if the country lost its ability to freely sell financial services into the EU. HSBC Holdings PLC Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver reiterated that as many as 1,000 jobs could be moved to the bank's Paris office. However, he added that this wouldn't be until after the negotiations, which are due to last two years, are complete. J.P. Morgan warned before the Brexit vote that as many as 4,000 jobs could leave the country.

Other banks are cutting their presence in London. Credit Suisse Group AG Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam told CNBC Thursday that the bank was aiming to cut head count in London from 8,000 to 5,000 over the medium term. He added that this had nothing to do with Brexit.

Write to Max Colchester at max.colchester@wsj.com and Nicholas Winning at nick.winning@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 19, 2017 13:53 ET (18:53 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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