JPMorgan Chase called on “several dozen” employees to lead the first batch of relocations from the UK to continental Europe early next year, initiating plans to protect their business after Brexit, according to Reuters.
In its first mass communication this year to its 16,000 employees in the UK in relation to Brexit, the entity outlines the organizational and strategic challenges faced by global banks as they prepare for the British exit from the European Union (EU).
The note is released a day before the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, receives at her residence in Checkers the ministers with whom she will discuss how to reform trade relations with the new EU-27.
The executive chairman of the Corporate and Investment Banking division of JPMorgan, Daniel Pinto, and the executive president of the Asset Management division, Mary Erdoes, sign the memo sent by email that also outlines the firm’s plans to strengthen its presence in cities such as Madrid, Paris and Milan.
So far, the US entity hopes to strengthen its subsidiaries in Frankfurt, Luxembourg, and Dublin, where it already has a banking license.
A spokesman for JPMorgan confirmed the authenticity of the memo, which was also sent to its staff in continental Europe, the Middle East and Africa, but declined to comment further.
Employees who have committed to leave the UK before the “Brexit Day” on March 29, 2019, work mainly in customer service or in risk analysis positions in both the investment banking division and asset Management.
Other banks have already pointed out the possibility of transferring employees to Madrid. Last year, a source said Citigroup was studying moving its private banking division to the Spanish capital.
The note also indicates that JPMorgan hoped to move or add “a few hundred jobs” to its EU workforce by March of next year and that it has already started looking for candidates for key positions, but the relocations could be more gradual if a confirmation is confirmed..
The total size of its workforce in the EU, however, “depended entirely on whether the transition agreement was confirmed”.
“We want to avoid affecting the lives of employees and their families with changes that could be unnecessary or premature, as long as the political negotiations and consequences at the regulatory level remain unclear,” the memo says.
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