May has taken aim at the global elite since becoming prime minister, telling her Conservative Party in October that “if you believe you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere.”
Now the rootless upper class look set to prove her right as financiers start to get itchy feet over Brexit. HSBC’s Gulliver said in an interview with Bloomberg Television that staff generating about 20 percent of London revenue may move to Paris. Lloyds Banking Group Plc, Britain’s largest mortgage lender, is set to pick Frankfurt as its base for guaranteeing ties to the EU, according to a person familiar with the matter. And JPMorgan’s Dimon told Bloomberg that “it looks like there will be more job movement than we hoped for.”
That meeting today might be a little prickly.
Biden Isn’t Going Quietly
Joe Biden, in his final 48 hours as vice president, took aim at Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. Speaking in the plenary, Biden said he wasn’t going to "mince words" and accused Putin of carrying out cyber attacks, using energy as a weapon and spreading misinformation to undermine democracies. While Biden didn’t mention Donald Trump by name, he made references to many of the concerns Democrats have outlined about the president-elect in recent months.
Faces About Town
In the era of Trump and Brexit, many banks have scaled back -- or even canceled -- their Davos parties. Standard Chartered Plc and Bank of America Corp. are among lenders not hosting their typical soirees, while Citigroup Inc. and Barclays Plc are holding scaled down versions. Even Dimon is expected to have to skip out early from JPMorgan’s event on Thursday to catch a flight back to the U.S.
That said, there were still a lot of famous faces on the party circuit last night. Brazilian model Barros was spotted at the McKinsey party with her husband, while U.K. celebrity chef Jamie Oliver -- in town to talk about sustainable food-- was at a dinner hosted by public relations executive Matthew Freud.
And Cameron is back. He was at the Belvedere Hotel last night giving a dinner speech to accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Sky News reported he received a speaking fee worth “tens of thousand” of pounds.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.