GS: London's expansion as a financial centre "will stall" due to Brexit process

BBC reports overnight comments from Goldman Sachs (GS) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Lloyd Blankfein, on the implications of Brexit negotiations.

Main Headlines:

London's expansion as a financial centre "will stall" due to Brexit process

Has "contingency plans" to move people depending on the outcome of the negotiations.

Hopes the bank would not have to trigger the plans.

Wants to keep as much of its activities in the UK as possible

Both sides in Brexit negotiations playing for very high economic stakes

Has held discussions with different cities across Europe and had looked at increasing office space in a number of locations

There would need to be an implementation period of at least "a couple of years" once the exit deal had been agreed by the spring of 2019.

"I don't think it will totally reverse. It will stall, it might backtrack a bit, it just depends on a lot of things about which we are uncertain and I know there isn't certainty at the moment."