On Friday, July 21, Bank of America (NYSE:$BAC) became the first Wall Street lender to choose Dublin, Ireland as its new European Union base. The decision comes as Britain prepares to follow through with Brexit.
International banks have been finalizing their plans to set up subsidiaries in the European Union in an attempt to ensure that they can still serve their clients if their London operations lose the ability to operate across the EU once Britain departs in March 2019. Right now, it seems that Frankfurt and Dublin are the winners for banks’ post-Brexit operations.
“Bank of America has operated in Ireland and engaged in the local community for almost 50 years,” said Brian Moynihan, the CEO and chairman of Bank of America.
Although the bank did not disclose how many roles would be moved to Dublin, it did say that some roles would also move to other EU locations.
As far as Ireland is concerned, this is positive news for the country as the Irish government has been looking to attract investment banks to Dublin for quite some time. “This announcement…is a strong endorsement of Ireland’s attractiveness as a location for investment, and of the government’s approach to securing Brexit-related activities,” said Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.
According to the Irish Times, Bank of America is extending its existing lease on its building in Leopardstown, Dublin. Also, the Irish Times reported that BAC was in the middle of talking about an additional two office spaces in Dublin that would be able to accommodate roughly 1,000 employees, which would give it the flexibility to add up to 300 additional staff.
One should expect to see a lot more of these announcements in the coming weeks. Why? Because July 14 was the deadline for banks to submit details of their Brexit arrangements.
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