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Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc opened a Luxembourg-based entity to service rich individuals based in the European Union, the latest in the Wall Street bank’s series of moves to avoid Brexit disruption.
The Luxembourg branch of subsidiary Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE opened
last month, according to regulatory records. It will be used for some of Goldman’s European private wealth management clients, according to a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity.
A spokesman for Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
Luxembourg, nestled between Belgium, France and Germany, has long been a global hub for investment funds and insurance companies, and is home to about
5 trillion euros ($6.1 billion) in fund assets. More than 60 financial firms have established operations in the Grand Duchy due to Brexit, according to Nicolas Mackel, the head of Luxembourg
for Finance, a development agency for the sector.
With fewer than 20 working days to go until the post-Brexit transition period expires, big banks are making their final preparations for the rupture between London and its former financial hinterland. Banks with London hubs will lose their passporting rights from January 1, and talks around a financial-services accord between the UK and Europe have made little progress, causing anxiety in the City of London.
“What we’re seeing right now are the global financial institutions having to execute on their contingency plans for a no-deal Brexit,†said Mackel.
Separately in recent months, Goldman Sachs has announced plans to relocate senior London dealmakers across European cities, according to two internal memos seen by Bloomberg News.
Hans Den Hoedt will become head of investment banking in the Netherlands and move to Amsterdam next year. He started at the Wall Street bank in London as a managing director in 2010, and was previously head of financial institutions group debt capital markets for Western Europe. He will be joined in the Dutch capital by Rutger van Halder, who has worked for Goldman Sachs in London since 2007.