Goldman Sachs holds London move, amid Brexit uncertainty

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is reportedly reconsidering plans relocate to London, amidst continued Brexit uncertainty.

The Wall Street bank is currently in the process of developing a £350 million headquarters in London, after initiating plans to relocate a portion of its global and IT operations to the capital.

However since the decision to leave the European Union various banks have warned of potential job losses, with Goldman Sachs implementing a slowdown in hiring in response to the concerns. Similarly, JP Morgan(NYSE:JPM) have also warned over potential job losses across their UK divisions. On Wednesday, following Theresa May’s first major Brexit speech of the year, JP Morgan Boss Jamie Dimon admitted “it looks like there will be more job losses than we had hoped for”.

Theresa May’s speech on Tuesday held bad news for banks waiting to hear whether the UK will retain its passporting rights, which include the ability to operate in all European countries. May’s insistence that the UK will be leaving the single market makes it less likely that UK banks will continue to have passporting rights, prompting many to consider relocation.

Speculation continues over whether Goldman will make the move to relocate its workforce out of London, with as many as 1,000 potentially being relocated to Frankfurt. However a spokesperson for the bank dismissed the claims, saying:

“We continue to work through all possible implications of the Brexit vote. There remain numerous uncertainties as to what the Brexit negotiations will yield in terms of an operating framework for the banking industry. As a result we have not taken any decisions as to what our eventual response will be.”

Whilst the city is already beginning to feel Brexit-related tremors, other major financial cities have already started to court banks who are considering a move. Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive of Goldman Sachs commented on the matter:

“Operating our business to maximise our global potential, we were trying to get as much into the UK as we could. So if a business needed to be done in the UK it was always there,” he said. He added that the UK time zone had always been a big advantage: “You wake up with Japan, you go to bed at the close in New York.”

“We were on track to move more and more of our global activities – global ops, global technology – all those things made and more sense to operate out of UK. Now we are now slowing down that decision,” Blankfein told Bloomberg TV in Davos.” he added.

Despite Brexit uncertainty weighing on the bank, it has continued to thrive recently having enjoyed a boost in bond trading following Donald Trump’s surprise election. Shares in the company were down 0.41 percent as of 14.54 PM (GMT).