Thursday 19 May 2016 3:30 pm

This is how many financial services firms are not prepared for a Brexit

Around one in three financial services firms will not have a clue what to do should UK vote to leave the EU on 23 June, figures published today show.

Pinsent Masons has released further information on a study into business' preparation for a potential Brexit, this time honing in on the financial services sector, and has found that 31 per cent of firms in the sector across the UK, France and Germany are yet to take what the law firm would describe as the basic steps to prepare for the UK possibly leaving the EU.

The research found that, while just over half (58 per cent) had held board-level discussions on the commercial and operational impact of a vote to leave the EU, less than a quarter (23 per cent) had considered how such a vote would affect staff who depended on the freedom of movement.

Meanwhile, one in five (19 per cent) had talked about the possibility of moving operations away from the UK in the event of a vote to leave.

In light of what it discovered, the law firm is reminding businesses that they should be taking steps to identify business-critical contacts and what can be done to protect them for the future and talking with investors to determine what their attitude to a leave vote would be.

However, Pinsent Masons' previous research pegged financial services firms as being among the most prepared for what the world might wake up to on 24 June, as 53 per cent of businesses in total admitted that what to do in the event of a Brexit was yet to come up at board level.

Those currently jobhunting in the financial services sector may be more aware of the Brexit-effect, with a recent study by Indeed finding that vacancies in the industry had decreased by 15 per cent during April, a much steeper drop compared with the nine per cent decline across the country overall.

Meanwhile, Treasury analysis has estimated the number jobs in the financial sector which are linked to European Union exports at 285,000.