Deutsche Bank moving jobs out of London

Lender pledges to serve UK customers despite sending 100 top jobs overseas

Germany's largest lender, Deutsche Bank, is moving 100 corporate bankers' jobs－from the City of London to Asia and the European Union－in a post-Brexit shake-up that will shrink its United Kingdom footprint.

The Financial Times said on Tuesday people who are familiar with the decision had said the company plans to make 100 of its 400 London-based corporate bankers redundant and move their work to Berlin, Dublin, Frankfurt, and cities in Asia.

The paper said the unnamed sources claimed the impacted London-based workers would able to apply for their relocated jobs if they have the ability to work within the EU. But the paper added that rehired workers would have to take a 25 percent pay cut.

The future of the City of London, which is Europe's major financial and banking hub, has been uncertain ever since the UK left the EU and lost its ability to conduct friction-free trading with customers within the bloc.

Financial services were barely mentioned in the post-Brexit trade deal between the UK and the EU that came into force in January following the nation's exit from the bloc. The EU has since said it would like to absorb as much of London's EU-linked banking business as possible.

But despite the planned job relocations, Deutsche Bank insisted in a statement that it will continue to serve its UK customers.

"We remain strongly committed to the UK, which will continue to be an important center for our corporate bank as well as our other divisions," the company said. "It will continue to serve our many UK corporate bank customers and to provide services to our clients globally."

The Bloomberg business news agency said Brexit was only part of the reason why the bank wanted to relocate workers. Bloomberg said it also wants employees to be closer to the customers they serve. And it wants to move from high-rent locations to cheaper options where possible.

Bloomberg said Christian Sewing, Deutsche Bank's chief executive officer, revised-down forecasts for the corporate bank in December in the face of negative interest rates.

The relocation of the Deutsche Bank workers does, however, look to be part of a trend. HSBC recently said it was moving up to 1,000 traders and support staff from London to Paris. And Citigroup said it was moving 250 employees out of the UK capital.

Consultancy company EY said recently as many as 7,600 jobs had been moved out of London since Brexit, along with 1.3 trillion pounds ($1.8 trillion) of assets.

Deutsche Bank employs around 7,500 workers in the UK, with most jobs in London. The corporate bank off ers a range of services, including basic lending, payments, foreign exchange, trade finance, and cash management.