JPMorgan Among Banks Added to ECB Oversight as Brexit Looms

(Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank has started supervising some of the world's top securities firms' businesses in the region, as they build up their operations across the European Union ahead of Brexit.

European units of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and UBS Group AG entered the ECB's oversight this year as a result of their shift of operations from the U.K. to the euro area, according to a statement on Wednesday. “Banks directly supervised by the ECB are generally becoming larger and more complex as banking groups consolidate or relocate activities” from the U.K., it said.

The world's biggest banks have been moving staff and assets from London --Europe's financial hub -- to the continent and Ireland to retain access to clients in those regions after the U.K. leaves the EU. The ECB has urged the lenders to stick to schedules they agreed with the watchdog, regardless of uncertainty of when Brexit will take place.

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The ECB said it will oversee a total of 117 banks at the start of 2020, down from 119 a year earlier, as some dropped off the list and others were deemed large enough to warrant direct supervision.

While many banks have outlined their transition plans, some have been chided by regulators for waiting until the last moment before Brexit to execute them. Banks have built the necessary infrastructure to handle the fallout but need to move employees more quickly, Jose Manuel Campa, chairman of the European Banking Authority, said in an interview in October.

--With assistance from Silla Brush.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nicholas Comfort in Frankfurt at ncomfort1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Ambereen Choudhury, Marion Dakers

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