JPMorgan agreed to buy a building in Dublin, Ireland to house 1,000 staff in order to give it flexibility in serving clients after Britain leaves the European Union on March 29.
That is according to property investment company Kennedy Wilson who sent a statement to Reuters. It said JPM has agreed to buy a 130,000 square foot building at the Capital Dock development in Dublin’s docklands area.
“This new building gives us room to grow and some flexibility within the European Union,”Carin Bryans, a senior country officer for JPM in Ireland told Reuters.
At the beginning of the month, Daniel Pinto, head of investment banking at JPM, told Bloomberg in an interview that the banking giant plans to move “hundreds of people” in London to the three offices in the European Union in order to be prepared for if Britain leaves the Single Market.
The three main offices would be located in Dublin, Frankfurt and Luxembourg.
The loss of passporting rights seems almost a certainty under Prime Minister Theresa May's "hard Brexit" plan - the loss of membership of the EU's Single Market in exchange for complete control over immigration.
If the passport is taken away, London could cease to be the most important financial centre in Europe, costing the UK thousands of jobs and billions in revenue. Around 5,500 firms registered in the UK rely on the European Union's passporting rights for the financial services sector, and they turn over about £9 billion in revenue.
This is one of the biggest fears in the City.
It is has subsequently led to other global investment banks, such as Citigroup and HSBC signalling job moves to continental Europe from London. Last month, Lloyd's of London said it would open a subsidiary in the heart of the EU, the day after Prime Minister Theresa May began talks to take the UK out of the 28-state trading bloc.
In March, Lloyd's of London - the city's 329-year-old insurance market - said it would open a subsidiary in the heart of the European Union to counter Brexit effects.