UK bankers stay put despite taxes
Updated on 18 February 2010
Exclusive: despite warnings that high taxes would drive bankers to decamp, official figures show the number of British bankers moving to Switzerland fell last year, writes Ben King.
A number of high-profile funds have announced plans to move all or part of their operations from London. Earlier this year, Mayor of London Boris Johnson warned that 9,000 could move, driven away by a super tax on bonuses, and a new 50 per cent rate of tax for high earners.
However, according to figures from the Swiss Federal Migration Office seen by Channel 4 News, just 1,079 British citizens migrated to Switzerland to work in the financial services industry in 2009. Of those, approximately two thirds work in IT and related disciplines.
That's a fall of just over seven per cent from the previous year, when 1,277 British financial services professionals were granted a "carte de sejour", giving them the right to work in Switzerland.
That figure will not include everyone who leaves Britain. Many who work in Britain's banking industry are citizens of other countries, and they may leave for other destinations.
But a fall of seven per cent is in line with the drop in bankers from around the world moving to Switzerland: 7.7 per cent. And the fact that the trend is downwards shows that tax increases have not yet triggered anything resembling mass exodus.
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One hedge fund manager, Hugh Hendry of Eclectica Asset Management, has remained in London despite the new 50 per cent tax rate.
"I think more than anything else [the warnings are] posturing," he says. "I think that's wise, I think they have to protect their position and their wealth. So I think they're investigating that and they're letting it be known just how easy it is for them to leave.
"But no-one covets money that much that they want to give up the great joys of living in a place like London."
Matthaeus Den Otter, chief executive of the Swiss Funds Association, said: "There is no 'emigration en masse', but a steady inflow of a few managers who, normally, do not 'break up entirely' in London, but relocate a part of their operations to Switzerland.
The list of financial services firms which has threatened to move some or all of their staff includes the interdealer broker Tullett Prebon. In December the firm warned that they will seek to facilitate, where possible and appropriate, relocation to the company's other offices around the world which have more certain taxation regimes.
Bluecrest, rated as one of Europe's top five hedge funds, is also planning to open an office in Geneva and relocate up to 50 of its staff there.
