The logo of Goldman Sachs is seen on the clothing of a trader working at the Goldman Sachs stall on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
London: Goldman Sachs will begin moving hundreds of people out of London before any Brexit deal is struck as part of its contingency plans for Britain leaving the European Union, the Wall Street firm's Europe CEO said.
"We are going to start to execute on those contingency plans," Richard Gnodde, chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs International, the European arm of the Wall Street bank, told CNBC yesterday.
"For this first period, this is really the period as we put in place contingency plans, this is in the hundreds of people as opposed to anything greater than that," he said. British Prime Minister Theresa May will trigger EU divorce proceedings on March 29, launching two years of negotiations that will shape the future of Britain and Europe.
Leading financial firms warned for months before last year's June referendum that they would have to move some jobs if there was a leave vote, and have been working on plans for how they would do so for the past several months.
More details are emerging after May confirmed Britain would leave the European single market, ending banks' hopes they might retain "passporting" rights that let them sell services across the EU from their London hubs.
The bulk of Goldman's European operations are in Britain, where it has around 6,000 employees.
