London: ING Groep NV will move as many as 60 trading jobs from Amsterdam and Brussels to London as the biggest Dutch lender seeks to consolidate operations and cut costs, a person with knowledge of the plans said.
The company also plans to shut its equity derivatives business for financial institutions in New York, Singapore and Brussels, said the person, who asked not to be identified as the plans are confidential.
ING is the first large lender shifting staff to London after the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union sparked concerns about the city’s future as a financial hub. At a conference in London this week, several financiers warned that they will move operations and jobs abroad if Prime Minister Theresa May can’t secure them continued easy access to the trading bloc’s single market.
ING may have to review the location in the future if the impact of Brexit undermines its ability to attract employees or otherwise affects the business and its clients, the person said. May hasn’t yet triggered Article 50, which starts the country’s formal exit from the EU.
ING said on Oct. 3 that it plans to eliminate about 5,800 jobs, or about 11 per cent of its workforce, to speed up its digital transformation. The Amsterdam-based lender expects to save about 900 million euros ($992 million) a year through the program, which includes about 2,300 cuts in the Netherlands and some 3,500 reductions in Belgium over five years.
Shares of ING have lost about 9 per cent of their value this year, giving the company a market value of about 44 billion euros.
