Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan expecting hard Brexit

London

GOLDMAN Sachs Group Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co are bracing for a "hard Brexit" as they seek to protect their access to the European Union once Britain leaves the bloc in 2019, according to top executives.

"We are now assuming a hard Brexit with additional conservative assumptions," Faryar Shirzad, Goldman Sachs's co-head of government affairs, said on Saturday in Washington. "Until we are told otherwise through tangible, meaningful, reliable declarations of some sort then we just have to keep moving forward" with the most pessimistic contingency plans.