Grimstone, speaking to Bloomberg on a trip to Delhi, said it was ‘no secret’ London will be a smaller financial centre post-Brexit and said Standard Life will no longer be able to service its 500,000 Austrian, German and Irish clients from the UK.
As a result, the insurer, which is currently in the process of a mammoth £11bn ($13.5bn) merger with Aberdeen Asset Management, is looking to make Dublin its new European hub, which would then be used to passport into the rest of the European Union.
Grimstone who is also deputy chairman of Barclays, said opening a new Dublin branch as a subsidiary would then “make the German business a branch of the Irish business”.
He added: “All of us are preparing road maps like that.”
The news comes just weeks after Standard Life announced the sale of its Hong Kong life business as it prepares to move away from traditional life insurance to focus on investment management.
M&G move
A number of UK financial services firms have revealed they are also considering a move out of London in a bid to preserve EU passporting rights amid concerns of a hard Brexit.
Last month, London-headquartered asset manager M&G investments, the investment arm of UK insurer Prudential, announced that it plans to set up a management company in Luxembourg, ending months of speculation that it might establish part of its business in Dublin.
However, Steven Maijoor, chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma), recently warned financial centres across Europe against engaging in regulatory and supervisory arbitrage in a bid to attract UK-based firms post-Brexit.
