Reuters: Lloyds Bank closes in on Berlin as post-Brexit EU hub

13 February 2017

Lloyds Banking Group is close to selecting Berlin as a European base to secure market access to the European Union when Britain leaves the bloc, sources told Reuters.

Britain's largest mortgage lender is examining steps to turn its branch in the German capital into a subsidiary and may apply for a licence to do so later this year, the sources said.

Lloyds, which declined to comment, is the only major British retail lender without a subsidiary in another EU country and it would be the first major lender to commit to Berlin as a hub to access the rest of the continent after Britain quits the EU. [...]

Banks are expected to announce more concrete plans for how they will adapt to Brexit in the coming months after Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed in a speech in January that Britain would leave the European single market.

For Lloyds, the German capital's appeal is that it already has the bank's main European hub with a full management team in place, including the finance, risk and human resources staff required of a full subsidiary.

Therefore, in terms of staff, the Berlin branch would only need to change the status of those roles to meet legal requirements for a subsidiary, rather than having to transfer more people, according to one of the sources. [...]

Full article on Reuters


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