GLOBAL banking giant HSBC would move up to 1000 staff from London to Paris if the UK left the single market, it has been reported.
The staff who would be relocated would be those who already process payments made in euros for HSBC in Canary Wharf, according to the BBC.
It comes days after claims on Friday that up to 2000 jobs at the US investment bank Morgan Stanley could be moved from London to Dublin or Frankfurt following Britain's vote to leave the EU.
London-based HSBC has about 48,000 UK workers across its retail and investment banking operations. It announced last year it was planning to cut 8000 jobs in the UK to reduce costs but said it would keep its global headquarters in London, following a review..
HSBC, the world's fourth largest bank by total assets and which already has more than 10,000 staff working in Paris, has declined to comment.
Thursday's referendum result means the UK will need to renegotiate its trade relationship with the European Union, including whether it remains part of the single market.
Eurozone leaders have warned that without unrestricted access to the EU, London's big finance firms could move operations outside the UK.
If the UK was not in the single market or the European Economic Area (EEA), it would mean the loss of "passporting", which allows banks to operate without restriction in all EEA countries.
The EEA comprises the 28 members of the EU, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. EEA rules allow those non-EU countries to be part of the EU's single market, as long as they allow full freedom of movement of people.
The head of France's central bank, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, also warned that London's banks would lose their "financial passport" outside the single market or EEA.
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