Spreading it around

The banking flight from London intensifies.  The Independent reports:

Japan’s biggest bank is reportedly set to move its European investment operations from London to Amsterdam because of the uncertainty posed by Brexit.

MUFG could move hundreds of its 2,100 London employees to the Dutch capital, sources told the Financial Times.

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The proposed move separates MUFG from other large Japanese banks based in London, which are eyeing moves to Frankfurt, the German financial capital.

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Frankfurt was also the choice of Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered for their post-Brexit locations.

HSBC chose Paris and the Bank of America and Barclays opted for Dublin.

It could be worse.  London is likely to remain the pre-eminent financial centre, even if it loses some of its European investment operations.  Because the banking institutions will be geographically dispersed in Europe, none of the cities is likely to benefit to the same extent from the cluster effect that has kept London at the top for so long; and none of them will have the heft to make a convincing challenge.  But the financial diaspora, and the consequent loss of jobs and tax revenue, is nevertheless yet another unhappy consequence of Brexit.