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Lionel Laurent

A Chequers Brexit Won’t Help the Banks

Even a softer “Chequers” deal will carry heavy costs for the finance industry, and its staff.

Getting bankers to move to Paris and Frankfurt is wildly expensive. — Getting bankers to move to Paris and Frankfurt is wildly expensive.
Photographer: Handout/Getty Images Europe

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September 17, 2018, 11:45 AM UTC

London’s ex-Lehman Brothers bankers who’ve been meeting up for nostalgic drinks have found the conversation shifting quickly to Brexit — and whether their next reunion will be in Frankfurt, Paris or somewhere else.

As the official March 2019 Brexit deadline looms, banks are in the last stages of preparing for a worst-case “no-deal.” A brutal loss of the City of London’s access to the EU wouldn’t just mean renting a new office to have a nameplate somewhere. Instead, lenders would have to set aside billions of pounds to fund their overseas offshoots.