Swiss bank UBS will move operations to Frankfurt post-Brexit.
The lender’s chief executive told Bloomberg TV that the lender had been forced to prepare for a no-deal Brexit.
Sergio Ermotti said it had chosen Frankfurt as the group’s “main hub, it will carry out what is described as a multi-location strategy, doing business from offices in Paris, Milan, and Madrid.”
“The financial system is already operating on the assumption that there is no agreement,” he said, referring to the deal on which Britain will leave the EU.
“Whatever is going to happen from now onwards, it’s not going to make the exercise less expensive.”
Ermotti went onto describe how Brexit had impacted many companies across Europe.
“It’s a complication that undermines the willingness to make investments. In the UK and in general in Europe this has been something that has prevented people taking action and investing for the future.”
There has not been an indication of the number of staff that UBS plans to move from the UK, although senior bankers have said that the number of employees moved from London post-Brexit will be smaller than initially expected.
The UBS chief executive said that despite concerns, he did not think Brexit would lead to another financial crisis.
“I think the system is well prepared. I don’t think the next crisis is going to be a banking crisis. The banking system is very resilient,” he said, before adding that Brexit would trigger the economy to slow down.
“That is clear,” he said.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief, Christine Lagarde, warned on Monday that no conceivable Brexit deal would be as beneficial as staying in the EU.
“Whatever the deal is will not be as good as it is at the moment,” she said.
“Let me be clear, compared with today’s smooth single market, all the likely Brexit scenarios will have costs for the economy and to a lesser extent as well for the EU.”
“The larger the impediments to trade in the new relationship, the costlier it will be. This should be fairly obvious, but it seems that sometimes it is not,” she added.
Shares in the group (SWX: UBSG) are trading at 15,14 (0943GMT).