Goldman Sachs to move 'hundreds' of workers from London in pre-Brexit contingency
Goldman Sachs is reportedly planning to move hundreds of its people out of London in a pre-Brexit contingency scheme, with the announcement coming as Downing St confirmed UK-EU divorce talks would be triggered later this month.
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"We are going to start to execute on those contingency plans," Richard Gnodde, chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs International, the European arm of the US investment bank, told CNBC on Tuesday.
"For this first period, this is really the period as we put in place contingency plans, this is in the hundreds of people as opposed to anything greater than that," noted Gnodde.
UK voted to quit the EU by a very narrow margin in a non-binding referendum in June last year.
On Monday it was confirmed Prime Minister Theresa May would trigger Article 50 on 29 March, beginning up to two years of divorce talks between the UK and the EU.
Multiple financial firms have previously warned that Brexit would see some jobs moved out of the UK.
These firms have enjoyed so-called "passporting" rights, which let them spruik services around the EU from their London bases, but a UK departure from the European single market under Brexit would end that.
Goldman has sited most of its European operations in UK, where is has roughly 6000 employees who provide a palette of financial services.
Gnodde told CNBC that the big question for contingency planning was whether or not the UK and the EU would agree on transitional arrangements as a Brexit deal was negotiated.
"We can't bank on them so we have to have contingency plans and that's what are going to start to execute on," noted Gnodde.
He would not state which locations would benefit from the moving of workers, but pointed out that Goldman held bank licences in France and German, as well as offices in a number of European cities. He said Goldman would initially start with hiring people within Europe.
"In the next 18 months we will upgrade those facilities, we will be taking extra space in a number of them, and we will be increasing headcount and capability and infrastructure around those facilities," said Gnodde.
"What our eventual footprint will look like depends on the outcome of negotiations and what we're obliged to do because of them. Whatever the scenario, whatever the outcome, London will remain for us a very significant regional hub and a very significant global hub."