David Solomon, the recently-installed chief executive of Goldman Sachs, has echoed the warnings of his predecessor that a messy Brexit will impact the bank’s investment decisions in the U.K.
Speaking to the BBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Solomon said the bank had not increased head count in the City of London since the 2016 Brexit referendum, preferring instead to build its presence in continental Europe.
The Wall Street CEO said this trend could continue if the U.K. fails to secure an amicable split from the European Union. He said: “If this is resolved in a difficult way or in a hard, I do think over time it will have an impact on where we invest and where we put people.”
Solomon’s predecessor Lloyd Blankfein, who stood down as CEO last October, had also warned of the impact of Brexit on Goldman Sachs’
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business in London, where the bank is set to move into sprawling new headquarters.
Goldman employs around 6,000 staff in the U.K. and as many as 700 could be relocated in the event of a no-deal Brexit, according to a November report by Financial News.
Goldman, which has been adding staff in EU cities, including Frankfurt, Madrid, Paris and Stockholm, isn’t alone in its concerns.
Eager to ensure they can continue to provide their services to clients within the EU, the City’s big banks have been preparing for a worst-case scenario under which they lose access to the EU single market overnight on March 29.
The likelihood of the U.K. leaving the trading bloc without a withdrawal agreement in place has increased since British Prime Minister Theresa May had her Brexit deal thrown out by parliament earlier this month.
May is now engaged in cross-party talks in the hope of finding a way to break the deadlock before a new proposal is put to U.K. politicians on January 29. If a consensus is reached, the PM would then need to return to Brussels to try to sway EU policy makers who, until now, have been reluctant to renegotiate terms.
Solomon told the BBC: “All these things ultimately have an impact on the investment decisions and the business decisions that all of us as business leaders make.”
His warning comes in the same week that U.K.-based corporates have shown the effect that Brexit is having on their future plans. Electronics maker Sony
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said it would move its HQ away from the U.K., while the CEO of aerospace giant Airbus branded Brexit a “disgrace” and said his company could well shift British jobs and business abroad.
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Source : MTV
