Lloyd’s of London firm moves European base to Dublin over Brexit
One of Lloyd’s of London’s largest insurance syndicates is to move its European headquarters to Dublin because of Brexit, Ireland’s prime minister has announced.
XL Group, which operates the XL Catlin brand, chose the Irish capital as its preferred location for its principal EU insurance company subject to regulatory approval, said the Irish Industrial Development Authority.
It is one of a growing number of financial services companies moving some of their regulated EU operations outside the UK to guarantee access to the single market after Brexit.
Ireland’s taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said XL’s decision was “a strong endorsement of Ireland’s outward focus and of our commitment to embrace new business opportunities”.
XL is the second Lloyd’s of London insurer to announce EU operations would be headquartered in Dublin after the July announcement that Beazley would convert its Dublin operation to a business transacting throughout the EU.
This week a Reuters survey found that about 10,000 finance jobs will be shifted out of Britain if the UK is denied access to Europe’s single market.
The findings suggested that the first wave of job losses would be lower than previous predictions, which suggested that as many as 100,000 jobs would be lost as a result of Brexit.
It is thought that initially fewer than 100 XL posts will be created in Dublin, where the Bermuda-registered company has operated since 1990. The Irish minister for business, enterprise and innovation, Frances Fitzgerald, said on Tuesday it was making “strenuous efforts to ensure the right conditions” were created in Ireland for continued investment across the financial services sector.
“As we face into the challenges of Brexit, we are determined to pursue and seize new opportunities,” she said.
XL got a large slice of the London market when in 2015 it bought Lloyd’s of London insurer Catlin Group for £2.8 billion (US$3.8 billion).
While Frankfurt has emerged as the big winner on the banking front with Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Nomura opting for the German city, the insurance sector is split with a three-way battle between Dublin, Luxembourg and Paris.
Two weeks ago US insurer Chubb announced it was planning to put its EU headquarters in the French capital if the UK quit Europe; AIG, another American company, said in March it would set up a subsidiary in Luxembourg.
