Standard Chartered Brexit Plans Delayed - Report

Robbie Lawther

22 August 2018

UK-listed will have to wait until the autumn, at the earliest, for approval from German and European banking regulators to turn its Frankfurt branch into its European Union subsidiary, Reuters has said.

The report also said that the bank may also have to move more jobs than originally envisaged to Frankfurt, a spokeswoman for the bank told Reuters.

The bank began interviewing candidates in March this year for about 20 jobs that it is moving to Frankfurt, after it submitted its licence application to German and European authorities in November 2017. Nine months later StanChart is still waiting for approval. It was among the first of about 20 banks to formally apply for licences to open bases or expand existing ones in the eurozone by March 2019.

The main European banking regulator wants to be certain that banks have a long-term plan to staff and structure their post-Brexit hubs, which is delaying the move. The ECB said last month that it will prevent banks from creating token offices. Banks will be scrutinised to ensure that work that is outsourced from European hubs to countries outside Europe still complies with local regulations within the trading bloc.

Reuters said that Standard Chartered has created a dedicated outsourcing oversight officer role in Frankfurt, whose duties will be to ensure that their overseas business activities are compliant with German and European rules.