Global Finance Professionals Worry About London's Future In The Event Of A Brexit

Over 90% of finance professionals think that the competitiveness of London as a financial centre will either suffer or remain the same if the United Kingdom chooses to leave the European Union. This compares with less than 10% who believe that London's competitiveness will improve. A Brexit will have the following short term effect on the competitiveness of London as a financial centre:

Whilst creating the Global Financial Centres Index Z/Yen is able to pose topical questions to respondents of our online questionnaire. We recently asked our global community of finance professional their opinions about the effects of the UK leaving the EU on the competitiveness of London as a financial centre.

As can be seen above, over 90% of respondents think that Brexit will have a negative effect or a marginal effect on London’s competitiveness; 17% of respondents think that Brexit will have a very negative effect, 36% think it will have a moderately negative effect. According to the responses, Edinburgh, Dublin, and the Channel Islands also stand to suffer, but not as much as London. Conversely, the larger centres in mainland Europe; Zurich, Frankfurt, Luxembourg and Paris, are expected to see some positive effects on their competitiveness if the UK voters choose to Brexit.

Mark Yeandle, Associate Director at the Z/Yen Group and the author of the GFCI said "The financial services industry hates uncertainty. A Brexit will cause uncertainty, especially for London. It is perhaps therefore, not surprising that over half of our respondents believe that London will lose some of its competitiveness as a financial centre in the aftermath of a Brexit. This compares will fewer than 10% who believe that London will gain competitiveness.”