The City must move on from Europe

The City thrived as the EU’s finance hub. But now new opportunities look more promising, says Matthew Lynn.

London offices of Deutsche Bank © Leon Neal/Getty Images

Deutsche Bank's workers are hitting the road
(Image credit: London offices of Deutsche Bank © Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Deutsche Bank has been staggering from crisis to crisis for years now. Its shares have fallen almost 90% from their pre-crash peak, and what was once Europe's mightiest financial institution is now a shadow of its former self. With 8,000 staff in London, it was one of the largest employers in the City, and it was a mark of the British capital's dominance of European markets that the German giant chose to run its trading operations from here rather than Frankfurt. Many of those jobs were eliminated in a restructuring this week, and unless there is a dramatic turnaround it is likely that many more will be lost in the next few months.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.