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A "significant" Brexit transitional deal should be agreed as soon as possible, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs International has said.
This is to stop jobs being moved from the UK to Europe, Richard Gnodde told the BBC.
At the moment he is spending money every day putting Brexit contingency plans into action.
So a 2019 deal on a transition period would be too late, as by then, the money would have been spent.
Goldman Sachs employs 6,500 people in the UK and its Brexit contingency plans involve adding hundreds of staff to their European offices - mainly in Frankfurt and Paris - to ensure they can continue to serve their EU-based customers after the UK leaves the EU.
These roles would be filled by both moving people from London as well as hiring locally.
Further additions or relocations would be considered over time depending on the final agreement between the EU and the UK.
Goldman Sachs' most senior employee outside the United States said the longer he had to wait for the government to clarify its position, the less useful any transition period would ultimately be.
"If I knew today that we would have a significant transition period I could stop spending that [contingency] money... because I know I would always have time to transition my business.
"If they [the government] tell me in February 2019 there will be a transition period - well, I've already spent all that money, it's not much use to me. At that point the transition period doesn't really help - so the sooner we know... that's obviously helpful to us."
He expects London to remain a very important financial centre but said that Frankfurt and Paris were competing hard to woo banks, with Paris in particular more attractive since the election of the business-friendly Emmanuel Macron.
Like all banks, Goldman Sachs submitted their Brexit plans to the Financial Conduct Authority last week.
The man who will be marking their homework is FCA chief Andrew Bailey.
Just last week he told me that banks would need to know the government's position on any transitional arrangements by the end of this year, before contingency plans were put into action.
It seems the regulator, and the banks it regulates, both agree time is very short indeed if UK jobs are to be saved from relocation.
(BBC)
