The new rules for the bankers who made London financial capital of Europe are still uncertain after Brexit, but one outcome is already clear: a stream of dealmakers across the English Channel.
While thousands of traders and salespeople have already made the move, the next wave is likely to include the high-flyers who advise on strategy, mergers and capital raising, say more than a dozen officials at global institutions. Goldman Sachs for one, is moving senior investment bankers out of London to the continent.
“I would expect that 3,000 to 4,000 more investment bankers, especially industry-focused specialists and debt and equity issuance advisers, will have to leave London and come back to Europe,” said Andreas Halin, founder of Global Mind Executive Search Consultants GmbH, a Frankfurt-based firm that specializes in the sector.
The prospect of losing a highly paid cadre of taxpayers is particularly bad news for the U.K., since it relies so much on financial services for revenue. The industry employs more than one million people, makes up about 7% of the economy, and accounts for more than a 10th of all tax revenue.
