Brexit-Driven Company Relocation Comes At A Hefty Cost

Brexit is likely to exact a heavy cost, especially in terms of employees.

The vote by the U.K. last month to leave the European Union is now being assigned some numbers in terms of financial and other types of impact.

Consulting firm Synechron said on Monday (July 11) that its own analysis has found that it will cost financial firms, including banks, as much as £50,000 for every employee it relocates from the U.K. to other European cities. That figure includes the actual physical relocation, hiring costs, redundancy costs, building costs, rent costs and also some contingency costs, the firm said in a release.

The cities mentioned as potential and eventual centers of relocation include Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt, Dublin and other cities which “may be just as competitive and worth considering as long as there is access to similar talent pool[s] and infrastructure,” said Tim Cuddeford, a London-based member of Synechron’s business consulting practice. “Following the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union, many banks and financial services firms are having to consider where best to locate certain parts of their workforce. Financial ‘passporting’ is vital to the work many banks undertake across Europe, and they will have to think carefully about which city within the EU their interests and their clients’ interests will be best served.”

Financial passporting is the avenue through which firms in one jurisdiction do not need special permission to offer services in another location within the European Union.