Over £1 trillion of assets are being transferred to Europe by UK financial services firms as a result of the EU referendum, the auditing firm EY estimates, while jobs also continue to flow to Dublin, Luxembourg and other EU locations.
An estimated £1.2 trillion (€1.3 trillion) of assets are to be relocated from the UK from 24 of the largest financial firms in total, EY said, including assets from five investment managers.
Firms also relocated over 400 jobs to Europe in the last quarter as they make their final preparations for the UK departure.
Dublin, Frankfurt, Luxembourg and Paris were the main recipients and the figure brings the total number of relocations since the EU referendum to 7,500.
However, Dublin remains as the primary choice of destination, according to the EY Financial Services Brexit Tracker.
Omar Ali, of EY, said: “Many financial services firms had implemented the bulk of their relocation plans before the start of the year, and we saw very little movement in the first half of 2020.
“But as we fast approach the end of the transition period, we are seeing some firms act on the final phases of their Brexit planning, including relocations. This is despite the pandemic and consequent restrictions to the movement of people, which is clearly making it harder to relocate people and adds complexity for those who were looking to commute to EU locations.”
The pre-trade agreement between the UK and Europe is set to be finalised at the end of October.
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