Lloyd Blankfein, image credit: Stuart IsettThe boss of Goldman Sachs, perhaps the most celebrated banker in the world, has given a warning about Brexit that should shake the complacency of the Brexiteers.
Lloyd Blankfein, is not any old CEO. He is not any old boss of a bank. He is the CEO and Chairman of Goldman Sachs, and he has held that position since 2006, when the previous boss, Hank Paulson, became the US Treasury Secretary. He weathered the banking storm of 2008 so successfully that in 2009, the year when bankers were public enemy number one, The Financial Times crowned him ‘person of the year.’
Lloyd Blankfein is no ordinary Tweeter. He has only Tweeted 19 times, not bad for someone with 64,000 followers.
Yesterday, he Tweeted, “Just left Frankfurt. Great meetings, great weather, really enjoyed it. Good, because I’ll be spending a lot more time there.”
So was that a hint? Is Goldman Sacks considering a move to Frankfurt, post Brexit?
It is all the fault of the Brexiteers, of course, before the EU referendum, the weather in London was much better.
The argument against Frankfurt taking over from London is simple enough, it is so . . . sorry about that, nearly nodded off … oh yes, it is so boring.
But if you work for this bank, and you enjoy a salary with lots of zeroes in it, then would you care about a little boredom?
One things seems clear, if a new financial centre is set to emerge in Europe to rival London, it is more likely to be Frankfurt, that the Catalonian city of Barcelona.
