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Since the June 23 referendum there have been fears of an exodus
from the City of London if access to the EU's single market
becomes significantly harder. Banks like JPMorgan have said they
could move thousands of jobs.
On Thursday JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill
Lynch and Morgan Stanley, as well as Britain's Asia-focused
Standard Chartered said they would try to support London's
financial sector.
"Today we met and agreed that we would work together ... with a
common aim to help London retain its position as the leading
international financial center," the banks said in a joint
statement with Osborne.
The statement said no other city in Europe had capital markets
as deep as those of London, but the banks made no commitment
about keeping jobs in Britain.
The French government pledged on Wednesday to make its tax
regime for expatriates the most favorable in Europe in a
landgrab for London banking business. [L8N19S2PO]
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have denied speculation they
were poised to shift London-based staff and operations to
Frankfurt
Jamie Dimon, the head of JPMorgan Chase, said before the
referendum that the bank could have to move up to 4,000 staff
from the UK in the event of a Brexit vote.
On Wednesday, the municipal authority for the City of London,
the district in the capital that is home to many large banks,
said the government needed to ensure EU exit talks preserved
financial services firms' "passporting" rights that allow them
to use London as a base for EU-wide activities.
Osborne, who was senior figure in the failed campaign to keep
Britain in the EU, has spent years trying to expand London's
role as a global hub for trade in China's renminbi and India's
rupee, as well as Islamic finance.
On Tuesday, he met British domestic banks, whose share prices
have tumbled since the Brexit vote, and encouraged them to make
more funds available for UK lending after the Bank of England
eased capital rules.
(This version of the story was refiled to fix word in first
paragraph)
(Additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill, editing by Andy
Bruce/Jeremy Gaunt)
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