Banks preparing to leave UK over Brexit: top official

London

BIG international banks are preparing to move some of their operations out of Britain in early 2017 due to the uncertainty over the country's future relationship with the European Union, says a top banking official.

Writing in the Observer newspaper last Saturday, Anthony Browne, chief executive of the British Bankers' Association lobby group, said the public and political debate was "taking us in the wrong direction" and businesses could not wait until the last minute.