THE ROYAL Bank of Scotland is preparing to shift around 100 jobs from Britain to Holland as it moves billions of pounds of investment business to Amsterdam in readiness for Brexit, it has been revealed.
It comes as the Edinburgh-based taxpayer-owned bank prepares to make Dutch capital its post-Brexit EU hub.
Today (Friday), RBS will go to the Court of Session in Edinburgh to seek sanction for the transfer which would involve a third of its investment bank clients moving out of the UK to the new hub.
The Herald has been told that RBS expects the Dutch hub to employ 250 people with around 100 staff relocating from the UK to the EU and the rest coming from Amsterdam with many of the roles already existing.
No roles have moved yet, although some employees are known to be on assignment in Amsterdam in preparation for Brexit.
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The court move comes three weeks after Barclays was given approval to move £160bn (€190bn) of assets to Ireland, just weeks before the UK leaves the EU on March 29.
The banking group gained approval from the High Court in England to to carry out the transfer of 5,000 clients and comes as the company ramps up its Brexit planning.
Details of the move were revealed in a judgment by Mr Justice Snowden that largely approved the "huge" transfer, which will apply to thousands of clients of the bank.
It said: "Due to the continuing uncertainty over whether there might be a no-deal Brexit, the Barclays group has determined that it cannot wait any longer to implement the scheme."
The judge added: "On any view, the scale of the transfer of business... is huge."
Barclays has decided to use its existing licensed EU-based bank subsidiary to continue to serve clients within the EU beyond March 29, regardless of the outcome of Brexit.
According to lobby group Luxembourg for Finance, 47 banks, insurers, wealth managers and investment firms have plans to move some business activities to the Grand Duchy in order to cope with potential disruption from Britain`s impending departure from the European Union.
Now RBS, which already holds a banking licence in the Netherlands – a legacy of its takeover of the Dutch bank ABN Amro – is looking to follow suit by shifting around £13bn in business from the UK to its new EU hub NatWest Markets N.V. The move involves transferring European clients of its London-based NatWest Market business to the Dutch subsidiary.
The Herald has been told the bank is budgeting to incur costs of around £150m in its preparations for Brexit.
The move will allow NatWest Markets to continue to serve European customers even if the British crashes out of the EU on a no-deal Brexit which would see UK banks lose passporting rights that allow them to function within the EU’s single market.
NatWest Markets, is the rebranded investment banking arm of RBS, created in 2016 in a move that signalled a break from the Fred Goodwin era which led to the bank's financial meltdown and £45.5bn taxpayer-funded government bailout in October, 2008.
The changes were made in response to ringfencing rules born out of the Vickers commission and designed to protect taxpayers from ever having to bail out a bank again.
Under the rules, high-street retail operations that serve the public were to be ringfenced from potentially more risky investment banking arms.
The rebranding saw RBS logos removed from the bank’s offices in the City of London, at 280 and 250 Bishopsgate, and replaced with NatWest branding. The address 250 Bishopsgate used to belong to ABN Amro, the Dutch bank bought by RBS just as the banking crisis began.
NatWest Markets suffered a £203m operating loss in the final quarter of last year, although this beat its £357m operating loss of the equivalent three months of 2017.
READ MORE: Royal Bank profits double to £1.4 bn
Last year, regulators in Luxembourg granted 80 new licences for financial firms, including a number of which that have publicly stated their intention to create or expand their operations in Luxembourg.
Banking giants Credit Suisse and Royal Bank of Scotland owners Lloyds Banking Group have chosen Luxembourg as one of their post-Brexit hubs, while JP Morgan is to shift some wealth management operations to the country.
The lobby group said Luxembourg`s long-term stability and AAA credit rating were factors in the country`s ability to attract new business.
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