Britain’s biggest banks are preparing to relocate out of the UK in the first few months of 2017 amid growing fears over the impending Brexit negotiations, while smaller banks are making plans to get out before Christmas. The dramatic claim is made in the Observer by the chief executive of the British Bankers’ Association, Anthony Browne, who warns “the public and political debate at the moment is taking us in the wrong direction”. A source close to Brexit secretary David Davis said he and the chancellor Philip Hammond had last week sought to offer reassurance that they were determined to secure the status of the City of London.
Browne, whose organisation has been in intense negotiations with the government, further warns the EU that banks based in UK are currently lending £1.1tn, therefore “keeping the continent afloat financially”, and that this arrangement is at risk. Of Britain’s position, he writes that banking is the country’s biggest export industry by far, and that the current trajectory threatens not just tariff-free trade but the legal right of banks to provide services.
Brexit: leading banks set to pull out of UK early next year | Politics | The Guardian
Probably an episode in the series "It seemed a good idea at the time"