Citi sets post-Brexit Frankfurt trading hub in motion

Citigroup’s new broker-dealer in Frankfurt is now fully operational as the US bank finalises its Brexit contingency plans with political negotiations stuck in limbo less than two weeks before the UK’s official leaving date.

Citi’s German investment firm has begun trading on the main European exchanges and issuing in capital markets on behalf of institutional and corporate clients that can no longer be served through its British entities, the lender said. It has also begun clearing on the Eurex exchange.

Unable to wait any longer, in recent months banks have put the finishing touches to their structural changes as the UK heads into more Brexit uncertainty after parliament rejected the deal on offer.

Financial companies have been leasing offices, moving hundreds of staff and transferring billions of assets to ensure international clients can trade without disruption across the EU after the UK’s exit, when it will lose its passport to sell services across the bloc.

“Since well before the Brexit vote in 2016, all our businesses have been focused on making sure we can continue to serve our clients in the UK and EEA, irrespective of the political outcome,” said David Livingstone, who was named Citi’s head of Europe, Middle East and Africa in January, taking over from veteran Jim Cowles.

Citi had a better starting position than many foreign banks that used London as a hub for access to the rest of Europe. Mike Corbat, chief executive, told the Financial Times last month the lender had spent in the low hundreds of millions on Brexit because it “went into Brexit operating in 20 out of 27 EU countries” and 60 per cent of its EU staff were already outside the UK.

In 2016 Citi consolidated its 22 European Economic Area branches under its unit in Ireland, where it offers investment banking services such as loan underwriting, syndication and trading; foreign exchange; credit and interest rate derivatives; transaction banking and cash management.

Despite the structural changes, the bank decided to keep its Emea headquarters in London, where it still has about 6,000 staff.

Citi is also searching for a bigger office in Paris after boosting the number of trading jobs it plans to relocate to the city after staff lobbied to move to the French capital rather than Germany, the FT has reported.

Executives initially said they planned to add up to 150 roles in Frankfurt and as many as 100 more spread across Paris, Milan, Madrid, Dublin and Amsterdam. Now more may be going to France.