ING May Move Staff Out of New London Hub to Continent on Brexit
ING May Move Staff Out of New London Hub to Continent on Brexit
(Bloomberg) -- Just as the staff at ING Groep NV’s new, centralized, London trading floor were getting to know each other, some may be packing their bags again thanks to Brexit.
The Amsterdam-based bank may relocate dozens of its London positions back to the European continent as the U.K. moves closer to the March 29 Brexit deadline without a deal in place.
“What regulators are thinking -- depending on how Brexit will be negotiated -- is that European banks do need some kind of a risk control on the continent for their euro business,” ING Chief Executive Officer Ralph Hamers told reporters on Wednesday.
The biggest Dutch bank announced plans to centralize its trading hub in London three years ago, before the U.K. voted to leave the EU. ING decided to follow through with the plan -- which meant closing operations in Amsterdam and Brussels -- after the vote. That went against the tide of most banks, which moved personnel the opposite way.
Hamers couldn’t specify how many have to move back but but from 200 to 300 staff “it may be a couple of tens.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Ruben Munsterman in Amsterdam at rmunsterman1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Ross Larsen, Keith Campbell
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