German banking major Deutsche Bank is considering plans to exit UK and move its business to Germany if a referendum ends the UK’s membership of the European Union.
Deutsche, which employs 9,000 employees in the UK, is the first large bank to begin a formal review of the potential fallout from the referendum.
The German lender has already set up a working group, comprising senior executives of strategy, risk, UK management and research, to assess the potential impact on its business if the UK withdraws from EU.
The group will review whether the bank should move some of its activities out of the UK, most probably to Germany, as well as some of its employees working in the UK.
Prime Minister David Cameron has promised an EU membership referendum by 2017 end.