City firms are likely to revive plans to shift staff to the EU once Covid-related travel restrictions ease next year, a financial sector report has said, as the number contemplating such moves continues to rise.
It will you know, eventually Brexit will turn out to have been a bad idea. Just keep believin’.
Don’t stop believin’
Hold on to that feeling
Streetlight people
Don’t stop believin’
Hold on
Streetlight people
Don’t stop believin’
Hold on to that feeling
Streetlight people
Article in the DT saying exactly the opposite.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/12/20/brexodus-fears-prove-unfounded-bankers-fail-take-flight-eu/
In fairness Tim, they’re correct in a narrow sense. Anyone delaying with strictly European matters in the firm I work for is likely to find the role relocated to their new European entity in Frankfurt. (Most current incumbents are reluctant to move to Germany so it’s likely they’ll need to find people from Poland to relocate or recruit in Germany itself) but as the European sector diminishes in size due to demographics, it’s likely the UK financial sector will expand in relation to other parts of the globe, especially Asia and indeed Africa, so we will have a smaller share of a fast diminishing pie. Will definitely have an impact but the net gains of having a global outlook are likely to outweigh losses from the European aspect. That said, if the current incumbents don’t get their act together we could be back in the EU within a decade through some kind of rainbow coalition…
The important detail is that to a large extent the banks staff want to be in London not Frankfurt. I recall when it became possible to move financial work from Frankfurt to London. There was a stampede. They don’t want to go back. France tried to stop the flood by making it organizationally difficult to not operate in Paris. Loads of staff then voted with their feet and went to work in London based firms.
AndyF
I agree 100% with that. Obviously for those in favour of the EU what you have just said is the dreaded ‘populism’ in action, so needs to be overridden. But you are correct, in my firm I’d wager probably less than 50 people across all areas have been willing to move from London to Frankfurt longer term.
Frankfurt is a pleasant enough middling German city, but it isn’t Paris, let alone London.
Chris Miller,
Indeed. It’s probably the WaGs who don’t want to move. What’s the point of those long hours and big bucks if you can’t spend them in the top fashion houses and be seen at all the best parties?
However, Frankfurt Hbf is the only time I’ve ever come across someone shooting up in the main underpass.
(Yeah, I know, I’ve led a sheltered existence.)
We’ve been having this discussion about “Next Year we’ll be moving to Frankfurt” since Adam was a lad, certainly since before the introduction of Eurobond trading. Never has happened, never will happen.
The only folks “moving to Frankfurt” from London will be ex-pat Germanics looking to go back to Germany to raise a family and using a move to Frankfurt to cover relocation costs and provide job security while monkey branching.
Same with local offices in Frankfurt. If the clients and money are there to justify a local office then likely a local German GmbH will be formed and staffed mostly by local Germans. Might have a ex-pat manager from London there to help with the initial setup, but nobody who isn’t German is going to remain there long term, never mind permanent expatriation. The tax-neutral ex-pat package alone would be exorbitant. Far better to just hire multilingual local Europeans.
Frankfurt might be a thriving German city, but it is an economic backwater as far as global finance goes.