Last week, news broke that London retained its position as the World’s top financial centre, despite controversy over Brexit.
The same report also revealed that the UK’s main economic rival, New York, experienced the largest fall in the bi-annual Z/Yen Global Financial Centres Index [GFCI, with Trump’s views on Free Trade to blame.
For the business sector, Brexit remains a clear risk factor – where this report, for many, will seem somewhat surprising, as the Pound continues to fair badly against the Euro, not forgetting other foreign currencies.
For others, questions over the true impact of Brexit have started to rise, where positive statistics, such as those revealing UK unemployment rate is now at its lowest in 42 years, have imposed a rose-tinted perception on what is actually one of the most difficult economic challenges the UK has had to face.
That said, why has the GFCI result not shed a more damaging light?
Too early to tell
The truth of the matter, is that Brexit has simply not yet happened. Come 2018, the GFCI report may reveal a very different turn of events, as more financial corporations and banks start to move their London based headquarters overseas, and Asian cities, such as Singapore, continue to close the economic power gap.
For Business Owners treading with caution – ask yourself why? As the GFCI result confirms, nothing has changed to date, which means now is a better time than any to continue to build your business. Britain, today, is still part of the EU, where both the single trade market and free movement still very much exist, providing us with the opportunity to grow, expand and develop the businesses we have worked hard to create.
Fail to plan, plan to fail
What’s important to note, is that discussions around the GFCI result have showcased one clear change: That large corporations, pre-dominantly banks and financial institutions, have already started to make their move – with either Dublin and Frankfurt signposted as new Headquarters for Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, as leading examples.
This move alone will pull hundreds of jobs from the Capital – whilst pushing British and European talent into alternative cities and out of our economy.
But, as the saying goes – Fail to plan, plan to fail. We cannot predict how Brexit will truly impact the UK economy right now, and we certainly cannot stop it whether for or against. Yet, the GFCI result has provided us with a fair representation of where we currently stand and what we can potentially expect.
Whilst May pushes for post-Brexit trade overseas, we as British businessmen and women cannot sit back and wait.
The true realities of Brexit will not come into play until the end of March 2019, so instead of cautiously assessing the eggshells beneath our feet, let’s grasp the next eighteen months and protect what we have built – putting clear and affective strategies into place that will continue to support and aid business growth for the long term.
