DAVOS: HSBC Holdings Plc Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver said trading operations that generate about 20 percent of revenue for the lender’s investment bank in London may move to Paris, quantifying some of the aftershocks for the U.K. after Brexit.
According to details, Gulliver said, “Activities specifically covered by EU legislation will move, and looking at our own numbers, that’s about 20 percent of revenue”. The bank confirmed that he was referring to the lender’s global banking and markets operations in the U.K. capital.
Gulliver, who runs one of the world’s most globalized banks, praised Prime Minister Theresa May’s handling of Brexit so far and also said he doesn’t expect a trade war to erupt between the U.S. and China under incoming U.S. President Donald Trump. Such an outcome could damage HSBC, given it makes most of its earnings in Asia. Earlier Tuesday in Davos, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged business and political elites to reject protectionism in his first public rebuttal of Trump’s rhetoric on trade.
A trade war “would clearly be negative for us,” Gulliver said. “We are the biggest trade-finance bank in the world.”
