More than ten countries have offered to host the new office of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) if a decision is made to relocate part of its staff from London, said EBRD’s Chief Financial Officer Andras Simor.
Simor has been overseeing the analysis of the EBRD’s administrative office in London since the end of 2016. Preliminary results of the analysis were expected to be published last year, but the work is not yet completed and could take another year or even longer.
“We want to make the right decision; time is not the most important aspect of this story,” Simor said in an interview with Reuters published on Monday.
>>>EBRD’s Profit Plummeted by 22.2 Percent
When asked if a decision would be made this year, he replied: “Maybe it will, we don’t know, it could be announced later.”
The bank currently employs more than 1,500 workers in London, and relocating a larger number of them could be costly and disrupt operations. In any case, there is no shortage of interest in hosting the new office.
“The list is long,” Simor emphasizes, adding that it “probably” includes more than 10 countries he did not wish to name.
The EBRD was established in 1991 to invest in former communist countries in Eastern Europe. Over the past 10 years, they have expanded their mandate and now operate in more than 30 countries.
>>>EBRD: Exceptional Success Achieved in Transition, but Anti-Reform Populism is Strengthening
So far, there are no indications that the EBRD’s headquarters will be relocated from London.
According to the founding charter, the bank’s headquarters must be in London, but the British referendum decision in 2016 regarding leaving the European Union has sparked a discussion among member countries about the need to expand the area of operation.
Simor’s analysis is not directly related to Brexit, but if the results are indeed published in about a year or more, their announcement could coincide with the date of Britain’s exit from the EU, Reuters notes.
Some members of the EBRD’s board of directors told Reuters at the beginning of the analysis in 2016 that indications of a complete break in trade relations between the UK and the EU could affect its outcome.
>>>Farage: Brexit is in Danger of Being Stopped by the Establishment
The EBRD’s Chief Financial Officer did not comment on this in the latest interview with Reuters, and an EBRD spokesperson said that relocating part of the staff from London has nothing to do with it.
The official reason for Simor’s analysis is the costs and the expiration of the lease for the existing base in London in 2022. The possibility of extending it for five years has been mentioned, which could be cheaper than separating employees and leasing two separate buildings, Reuters notes.
“We are considering options, whether we can or want to extend the lease for this building,” Simor said. “We are also looking for alternative solutions around London,” he added.
