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FORTUNE.COM // DECEMBER 2019
THE NETHERL ANDS HAS LONG BEEN welcoming to business out-
siders. Some 4,000 foreign companies, about half of them
American, have set up in the country since the 1970s, ac-
cording to NFIA. Amsterdam’s vast international airport is a global
hub, an hour’s flight time from London. English is widely spoken;
ultrafast Internet service has long been ubiquitous. And the 25%
corporate income-tax rate, while higher than in the U.K. or Ireland,
is lower than those of continental giants France and Germany.
Britain’s looming departure is amplifying these advantages. Most
people think of Brexit headaches in terms of trade in goods, imagin-
ing tariffs on French wine and German cars, or 10-mile truck back-
ups at the borders. But the hurdles for service industries are just as
big, if not bigger. From the moment Brexit begins, every company
now based in Britain, regardless of its nationality, will need new
regulatory licenses to do business in the rest of the EU, along with
new contracts for EU clients.
This looming reality has spurred the financial industry to mount
an early Brexodus. So far, 332 financial companies have moved core
elements out of London, according to U.K. think tank New Financial.
Those numbers may understate the eventual departures: Accounting
firm EY’s Brexit Tracker estimates that about 7,000 financial jobs
will leave London in the near future, and that about a trillion Brit-
ish pounds ($1.29 trillion) in banking assets could also leave.
Already, Citibank and JPMorgan Chase have each spent more
than $100 million moving their EU hubs out of London. Bank
of America relocated about 125 people to new EU headquarters
in Dublin and will have another 400 in Paris, where EU banking
regulators have moved from London.
Amsterdam, for its part, has become a
magnet for “diversified financial” firms—a cat-
egory that includes financial-data companies,
brokerages, and providers of exchanges and
other trading infrastructure. Most of the city’s
financial headquarters belong to this category,
according to New Financial, and Amsterdam
has lured more such firms from Britain than
any other EU city. That gives the Netherlands
critical mass—likely at London’s expense. “For
investors who invest for the first time in Eu-
rope, Britain will be less often on the short list,”
says NFIA’s Nijland.
For firms that have moved operations out
of Britain, the Brexit argument has long since
been settled. “None of us could hang around
waiting for politicians to agree on what to do,”
says Nick Charteris-Black, managing directorSCENERY CHANGE Rhian Ravenscroft (left) in Market-
Axess’s Amsterdam offices. After the Brexit vote, she
says, “I was the first one to ask to move” from London.
She and colleague Geoffroy Vander Linden (right)
have traded long train commutes for short bike rides.