EBRD Not Planning to Move HQ From London to Mainland Europe After Brexit

NICOSIA (CYPRUS) (Sputnik) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is not planning to transfer the headquarters from London to the mainland Europe after the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union as this process is not expected to have any impact on the bank's activities, the director for Local Currency and Capital Markets Development at EBRD told Sputnik Tuesday.

"While we have head office in the United Kingdom we do not really invest in the United Kingdom. There has been no request from anybody for us to move in office," Andre Kuusvek said on the sidelines of the EBRD 2017 Annual Meeting and Business Forum, which is taking place on May 9-11 in the city of Nicosia, Cyprus.

As a global institution, the EBRD has shareholders from many countries, including the United States, Japan, China, Egypt and Mexico, he noted.

"I don't think that [Brexit] will affect EBRD's operation in any way, we do not expect that it will happen at all," Kuusvek outlined.

Since its foundation in 1991, EBRD has developed its activities to more than 30 countries, from the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean, to Central and Eastern Europe, to Central Asia. The bank is operating in a wide range of industries from agribusiness to infrastructure to transport.

According to the Russian Economy Ministry's figures, the United Kingdom is one of the EBRD's major shareholders holding 8.7 percent of the bank's capital.