Brexit: JPMorgan could cut more than 4,000 UK jobs, says chief executive Jamie Dimon

Drastic cuts to staff needed if EU decides that Britain's post-Brexit regulations are not 'reciprocal', bank's boss says

JPMorgan’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, has said the investment bank may have to cut more than 4,000 UK jobs if the UK doesn’t secure a Brexit deal that is close to the status quo.

The cuts would amount to more than a quarter of the giant American bank’s UK presence.

“We love London, we love working there,” Mr Dimon told the BBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, adding that having a presence in London meant “huge efficiencies” for JPMorgan and for the EU.

But he said that the bank would have to make drastic job cuts if the EU decides that Britain's post-Brexit regulations are not “reciprocal”.

Uncertainty remains over whether Britain’s financial services industry will be able to continue to do business across the EU thanks to so-called regulatory equivalence.

That would mean demonstrating that the UK’s rules are just as stringent and comprehensive as the EU’s.

Mr Dimon’s latest comments represent another shift after he had initially warned of thousands of job cuts prior to the June 2016 referendum, before the bank revised that estimate to between 500 and 1,000.

JPMorgan, which counts London as the centre of its European hub, has begun making plans to expand into other financial centres. The bank agreed last May to buy a Dublin building with room for 1,000 staff and in November announced plans to add about 60 new staff in Paris.

Financial firms have said they will have to begin moving jobs imminently if the Government cannot give clarity on the post-Brexit situation.

On Thursday, Chancellor Philip Hammond told an audience in Davos that the UK will refuse to sign a Brexit trade deal with the EU that does not included financial services.

Any deal that did not include the sector would not be “fair”, the Chancellor said.