(Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. is preparing to shift more business into the European Union on the back of fresh guidance from regulators this week, a top banker in the region said.
Kristine Braden, chief executive officer of Citibank Europe, said on Wednesday that the Wall Street firm continues to relocate staff following a pause during Covid-19 and is also in the process of moving some products.
“This week is actually a really important week because we’ll be receiving some of the results from our regulators on their future expectations and as a result there will be a lot of moves,” she said at the Bloomberg New Economy Gateway Europe conference near Dublin. “So maybe the messier part is yet to come.”
US financial giants have moved hundreds of staff into European cities such as Paris and Amsterdam to ensure they can keep serving EU clients after Brexit — though regulators have told some to go further in supervising their business within the bloc.
Still, Braden also said that Europe has plenty of work to do to compete with London including far closer banking and capital markets union ties.
That echoed earlier comments from UniCredit SpA Chief Executive Officer Andrea Orcel, who said Europe would struggle to challenge the US or China without a fiscal and banking union. Cross-border M&A would also remain unlikely.
A more integrated EU “would create an immense opportunity for UniCredit,” Orcel said. But he added that his firm cannot become a pan-European bank if the “EU is fragmented, it will not. And no other bank can do that.”
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