Japan's biggest bank has decided to move its operations from London to Amsterdam in the uncertain aftermath of Brexit. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) is planning to move over 100 employees to its new investment branch in Holland. MUFG has over 2,100 employees in their London offices, and it's unclear how many of these jobs will be effected. This is only the beginning of the financial flight to mainland Europe as Great Britain pulls out of the European Union.
Brexit continues to cause a huge political and economy shake-up over a year after a referendum decided the fate of British citizens and the economy: the majority voted to abandon their relationship with other EU members and strike out on their own, politically and economically. Now that Brits will no longer have European passports, many businesses with important relationships within the member states are seeking alternative hubs for their businesses.
For example, American and Asian corporations with hubs in London won't be able to provide financial services to EU clients. Many foreign corporations have their European hubs in London. Now, this trend is changing and many companies are leaving for Frankfurt, Paris, Dublin or Luxembourg. Poland has hopes to attract 25,000-30,000 jobs from post-Brexit Great Britain, which is especially important as Poles are Great Britain's largest immigrant population; they might just be headed home.
While MUFG and others are on the move, for many EMEA businesses, London remains the center of commerce. While MUFG thinks a move will help them with their EU clients, they also recently bought a 22% stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) for $9 billion. While the bank has been troubled by some organizational and financial problems in recent past, MUFG has posted growth over the last year and is worth $19 billion. The deal with Morgan Stanley has allowed MUFG to form a joint venture with the U.S. bank and provide Morgan Stanley's services to its Japanese clients.
MUFG's strategy for the coming years is the development of wealth management services for the Japanese market. A launch is scheduled for April 2018, with projected revenue of $400 million in the next four to five years. Japanese wealth has grown 1.1% in the last year, to $14.9 trillion, with project growth up to $16.2 trillion by 2021. 59% of Japanese money is in cash assets and savings, a good market for investment banks looking to profit from individual wealth management services.
MUFG is not the first Japanese bank to move its hub to the EU. Nomura Group, Daiwa, and Sumitomo Mitsui have announced new European hubs for business as well.They're moving their businesses to Frankfurt, while Citigroup (NYSE: C), Morgan Stanley, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Barclays (NYSE: BCS) are planning on moves to Dublin. There is of course the danger that hubs like Frankfurt will quickly become oversaturated with new business, but in that case, the quicker banks make their post-Brexit move, the better.