BERLIN, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- The financial center Frankfurt is looking at another benefit from Brexit as Goldman Sachs' Vice-Chief for Germany Wolfgang Fink talks about a big staff increase, up to "tripling or quadrupling the number".
On Friday, "SPIEGEL" cited the full comment made earlier by Fink at a conference. "We have said repeatedly that we want to double our staff in Frankfurt, now there are several scenarios which speak in favour of tripling or quadrupling the number", Fink said.
Goldman Sachs currently employs 200 people at its Frankfurt office. According to "Bloomberg", the U.S. investment bank is already looking for additional rental space in the city.
The United Kingdom will formally seize to be a member of the European Union in July 2019. British-based financial institutions are concerned that they will lose access to the bloc's single market thereafter.
The British financial services lobby group "TheCityUK" estimates that 70,000 jobs could be lost in the industry if Britain does not remain in the single market, while London Stock Exchange Chief Xavier Rolet put the figure as high as 270,000 in the event of a loss of euro-clearing activities.
So far, lenders including Deutsche Bank and UBS, and the Japanese banks Nomura, Daiwa and Sumitomo Mitsubishi Financial Group have announced plans to open new offices in Frankfurt, making the German city the leading competitor for the spoils of "Brexit" ahead of rivals Paris and Dublin.
Frankfurt is home to three major regulatory bodies, the European Central Bank, German Central Bank (Bundesbank) and German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), potentially giving it an advantage over continental rivals.
The lobby group "Frankfurt Main Finance" reported that as many as 20 banking institutions were currently set on expanding or creating new corporate entities in the city.
