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EU referendum: PwC report predicts dire Brexit impact on financial services

Research carried out by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has outlined the potentially dire consequences of Brexit on the UK’s financial services.

The report, carried out for financial lobbying firm TheCityUK, estimates that there would be 70,000 to 100,000 fewer financial services jobs by 2020 if the UK opts to leave the European Union, representing a 9.5% decline compared to remaining in the EU.

PwC cite the strength of the UK’s financial services sector as being partly reliant on access to European markets, which would naturally be affected, at least in the short-term, by any Brexit.

The report will make worrying reading for the capital’s financial services sector, which makes up for the bulk of the UK’s financial services as a whole, after a recent poll by YouGov found support for the leave campaign at 49%.

However, the stark headline figures hide a slightly less dire picture in the long-term, where the report estimates that following a short-term shock, the sector should manage to claw back up to 70,000 jobs by 2030, cutting any potentially jobs gap back to 30,000 at a £5bn cost to the economy.

Lucy Thomas, deputy director of the Stronger In campaign, said: “The financial services sector is a major UK employer with hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country in cities like Leeds, Birmingham, London and Edinburgh.

“A warning like this shows just how many jobs could be lost if we leave Europe and underlines the real risks to our economy and our prosperity of leaving Europe.”

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