Brexit Threatens 10% of London’s Financial Jobs: City of London Corp. Official

Up to 10 percent of jobs in London’s financial district may be lost if Britain fails to secure adequate access to European Union markets after Brexit, a City of London official said.

Bankers first called for full access after June’s vote to leave the European Union but such hopes have now faded, leaving the sector to call for a transitional deal to ensure a smooth switch to Britain’s new trading terms with the bloc.

Jeremy Browne, the City of London Corp.’s special envoy for Europe, said about a tenth of jobs in the “Square Mile” financial district depend on the banks and other financial firms there having full access to the EU single market.

“We shouldn’t assume that all those will go en masse,” Browne told a briefing for the foreign press.

Some 164,000 people were employed in financial services in the City of London in 2015, according to the corporation’s website. Browne’s comment suggest that 16,400 jobs are at risk, lower than other estimates that lobby groups have put forward.

“Once you start pulling bits out, the overall organism could be affected in unpredictable ways,” Browne said.

Browne, a former Liberal Democrat lawmaker, has visited all EU states at least once this year to meet politicians, central bankers, businesses and regulators to spell out how an acrimonious Brexit would harm both sides.

Britain is set to begin formal divorce talks with Brussels by the end of March. Paris, Frankfurt, Dublin, Milan, Amsterdam and Madrid are already vying to attract financial firms from London.