Executives of several U.S. firms warned that they willpre-emptively move their operations to Europe unless U.K. Prime MinisterTheresa May provides early clarity on Britain's future relationship with theEU, The Daily Telegraph reportedSept. 24.
The executives issued the ultimatum at a round-table meetingwith the British prime minister in New York in the week of Sept. 19 after shedeclined to give details about how her government would approach Brexitnegotiations other than saying it will pursue an agreement that is "in thenational interest."
A "City source with knowledge of the meeting,"which was also attended by managers from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and , said the executiveswarned that they cannot afford to wait to learn about the final outcome of thetwo-year Brexit negotiations before deciding on the future of their U.K.operations.
U.S. lenders have hinted of out of the U.K. even before the June 23 referendum.Total potential job losses stemming from the Brexit vote could range between40,000 and 80,000 over the next decade, the paper noted.
Companies House data analyzed by the Financial Times indicates that banks that use the U.K. to gainaccess to the EU employ more than 590,000 people, book annual profits of morethan £50 billion and have assets of more than £7.5 trillion.