Morgan Stanley to issue Brexit update to clients this week

Morgan Stanley will update investment banking clients on its Brexit plans this week, as the Wall Street giant prepares to transfer business from London to bulked up offices in Frankfurt, Paris and Dublin.

A memo seen by the Press Association – entitled Morgan Stanley Client Engagement Brexit Update – invites recipients to join a call on Thursday September 27.

The US bank is putting forward a managing director of its global capital markets division, a member of its sales and trading team, as well a member of its legal and compliance, to lead the session.

“Dear Client, As part of our preparation for Brexit, we are pleased to invite you to a call explaining Morgan Stanley’s Brexit approach,” the memo reads.

It is likely to shed more light on how it is positioning itself for the EU divorce.

The Press Association understands that clients expect to start putting together paperwork by November that would enable them to do business with Morgan Stanley’s EU entities once Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019.

The bank follows in the footsteps of Japanese lender Nomura, which started contacting clients to transfer business from London to Germany in August so that it was “fully prepared in the event of a ‘Hard Brexit’”.

  • Paris

  • Dublin

  • Frankfurt

EU clients are likely to have to complete the process multiple times, as they often conduct trades with a number of banks who are also preparing for post-Brexit regulations.

The shift of business to the bloc will be a blow to London’s reputation as a global financial centre, as a portion of lucrative trading revenues are set to be booked on the continent rather than in Britain.

Morgan Stanley has plans to add around 200 staff in Frankfurt through a mix of new hires and relocations of its 6,000-strong UK workforce, effectively doubling its local employee bases.

The bank is also set to bulk up its Dublin office, and could add around 80 staff to its Paris entity.

London will remain Morgan Stanley’s European headquarters.

Peer Nomura is preparing to move around 100 staff from London to service its new EU entities, while JP Morgan is looking at relocating around 1,000 front and back-office roles across a number of its EU sites.

Among UK lenders, HSBC is on course to shift up to 1,000 jobs to France. Barclays is on track to bulk up its Dublin operations, while RBS expects that around 150 staff will help serve EU clients out of operation in Amsterdam.

Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

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