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Barclays' Jes Staley: Immigration policy is top worry for City post-Brexit

Mr Staley said that limiting talent via strict immigration rules would have a longer term impact on the banking sector than losing passporting rights - REUTERS
Mr Staley said that limiting talent via strict immigration rules would have a longer term impact on the banking sector than losing passporting rights - REUTERS

Barclays boss Jess Staley has laid out his concerns for the City post-Brexit, warning that immigration - not passporting - should be the financial sector's biggest worry. 

Speaking at a conference in London on Wednesday alongside HSBC chairman Douglas Flint, Mr Staley said that the UK's immigration policy following its exit from the EU is a bigger concern for Barclays and the City than retaining EU passporting rights. 

"Intellectual capital is the most important asset that London as a financial centre has. If other countries limit the free flow of talent, we'd hope the UK does not follow that trend," he said, adding that Barclays has 3,000 staff in the country with EU passports.

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Mr Staley said that limiting talent via strict immigration rules would have a longer term impact on the sector than losing passporting rights, which has been the biggest worry since the EU referendum vote because it could mean lenders have to seek approval to work in each EU country individually.

Mr Staley added that the financial community would start to see movement outside the country in a "short period of time" as financial services firms start to "roll forward" their contingency plans amid uncertainty.  

Goldman Sachs, for example, fired the starting gun on its post-Brexit plans last month, not long after the Bank of England told banks to prepare for a "range of possible outcomes" so that they do not make any knee-jerk reactions. 

With lenders starting to execute those plans, HSBC's Flint warned that it would be "better to get a good deal in a reasonably short period of time rather then a really excellent deal so far into the future that people would have triggered all their contingency plans because they don't have any alternative." 

That said, Mr Staley made clear that he did not expect to see "mass migration" out of London nor a wholesale shift of products to other jurisdictions, pointing out that banks had kept their channels of credit open since the EU vote. 

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