Brexit to cost UK up to 12,000 finance jobs: City chief
The Square Mile could see up to 12,000 jobs lost in the short-term aftermath of Brexit with thousands more at stake longer term, the City of London Corporation has warned.
At the lower end of the scale, 3,500 jobs could be lost to EU states, Catherine McGuinness told parliament’s Exiting the European Union Committee this Wednesday. More than 2 million people work in financial services across Britain, with 396,000 in London.
She said: “The number of job losses will depend on the amount of access that the sector continues to have and the amount of business it can follow up there.
“We are not expecting a big Brexodus in the first instance. But depending on how things pan out, in the longer term, we may see many more go.”
The city was disappointed that Britain’s government ditched its preferred option of future EU trade based on mutual recognition, whereby Britain and the EU accept each other’s rules under two-way regulatory co-operation.
“We had expected continued support for mutual recognition,” Ms McGuinness said.
Many banks as well as wealth and asset managers have opened hubs in places elsewhere in the EU such as Dublin and Luxembourg ahead of Britain’s exit.
The City of London said there had been 1,600 confirmed job moves so far.
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