U.K.'s May Meets With Wall Street Bank Chiefs
January 19 2017 - 2:08PM
Dow Jones News
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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