Brexit : Citigroup will relocate (in part) to Frankfurt

It’s official. Citigroup, the fourth american bank in terms of assets, has chosen (it also) Frankfurt as a city of decline after the Brexit. The subsidiary manager Europe Middle East Africa (EMEA) region, Jim Cowles, has informed all employees of the area Thursday in an email that The Tribune has been able to consult, in which he qualified this decision as ” prudent measure “. In the financial district of Canary Wharf in London, 6,000 people work in the monumental tower Citi, on the 22,000 employees of the bank in Europe, scattered in 20 countries.

“If, at the conclusion of the negotiations of the Brexit, the United Kingdom loses access to the single market of the EU, certain adjustments to our business model will be necessary,” he warned.

“Currently, our brokerage activity for the european Union is Citigroup Global Markets Ltd, which is located in the United Kingdom. Assuming the loss of the passport fee for the EU after Brexit, we will continue to operate on the british market but it will be a solution for the european market. Therefore, we have planned to convert our German subsidiary in the investment company. Frankfurt was our preference to establish the headquarters of our brokerage activity, building on existing infrastructure and on the people and the expertise that we already have on site. “

Jim Cowles does not specify any number of persons potentially affected. It evokes the possibility of having to create 150 new positions to be located in the european Union after the Brexit to be able to continue to serve the customers of the single market.

Paris shunned, Frankfurt’s popular

It is a disappointment for Paris, while the organization for the promotion of the financial centre, Paris Europlace, multiplies the calls of the foot and that the Prime minister, Edouard Philippe, himself, has unveiled a series of measures intended to attract actors of the finance in the capital. Only HSBC has officially chosen Paris, because he has a bank full fiscal year, the RTC. On the other hand, Frankfurt is trusted by major banks, us in particular. Morgan Stanley will transfer 200 jobs (it is little) in the city richest of Germany, where the headquarters of the european central Bank. Goldman Sachs is likely to double its staff (again, around 200 people).

The Ceo of JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon, has recently confirmed that the legal entity of its subsidiary for Europe would probably be Frankfurt, where the bank has “all licenses” required, while leaving the door open to the introduction of collaborators in other european cities, Paris, the netherlands, in Madrid, or elsewhere “. The swiss bank UBS also cited Frankfurt as a city priority. The japanese Nomura, Daiwa Securities and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group have all three says to consider establishing subsidiaries, as the british Standard Chartered. And the giant Deutsche Bank will repatriate naturally teams, potentially 4.000 employees, to its domestic market.

The other loser is also Dublin. Last autumn, Citigroup had denied having the intent to move 900 people from London to the irish capital, where it already employs 2,500 people. They said its geographic proximity and linguistic asset ratio, in addition to its “benevolence” tax for businesses.

In his email, Jim Cowles said that the us bank will gradually increase its presence in several business lines (private banking, financing and investment, capital markets, cash management) in several other european cities key, “including Amsterdam, Dublin, Luxembourg, Madrid and Paris” in alphabetical order to not offend anyone. And it reaffirms that ” London will remain our HEADQUARTERS for the EMEA region and a hub world important to Citi.”

Like this post? Please share to your friends:
Leave a Reply