Fintech Brexit Windfall for Dublin?

Irish bankers will be delighted with the promises being made of a jobs boom in the financial sector in the wake of Brexit. As we (potentially) near the end of the beginning of this sorry saga, those gambling on a long-term career in financial services will feel justified in their career choices on the back of promises by some big international financial players with Irish bases that they have moved staff here for the long haul regardless of the Brexit decision.

“There is no return”, said Anne Finucane, Bank of America vice-chairwoman, at a finance conference in Dublin. “The bridge has been pulled up on that”, she added, talking about a possible return to the UK were it to row back from the Brexit brink.
Lest there be any doubt about the bank’s intentions, she flagged it had spent about $400 million (€353.5 million) preparing its EU hub in Dublin. And Bank of America isn’t the only institution with the intention to stay. British bank Barclays has spent up to £200 million moving operations and staff out of the UK to prepare for Brexit.

Ratings agency S&P (owned by Standard and Poor’s) also opened its EU hub in Dublin on Thursday, noting that they’re here “for the long term”. And as if they were adding insult to injury to poor old Blighty, S&P issued Brexit research saying that hiring in the Irish financial services sector “may very well accelerate because of a no-deal outcome”.