Richard Gnodde, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs International, the bank’s international arm, said that the bank is going to start executing on its contingency plans because it can’t predict whether a transitional trade deal will be agreed or not, reports The Telegraph.
Those plans include moving some staff out of London and expanding in Europe, Mr Gnodde told CNBC, adding that the number of those added in Europe will be in the hundreds “for this first period.”
“What our eventual footprint will look like will depend on the outcome of those [Brexit] negotiations, and what we are obliged to do because of them,” he said.
His comments come a day after the UK’s ambassador to the EU Sir Tim Barrow formally wrote to the office of Donald Tusk, the EU Council president, to confirm that Brexit would be triggered on March 29 in a process that will take two years.
Mr Gnodde added that “whatever the scenario, whatever the outcome” London would remain an important financial centre.
A spokesman for the bank did not comment further.
