But his comments caused confusion amongst officials, with some backing the leader’s figure and others saying the number would be considerably smaller.
Volker Bouffier, the Minister President for Hesse, made the remarkable claim during an interview with Starkes Land Hessen, a magazine supplement for Der Spiegal.
In his interview, published last weekend, he said: “We have some 40 financial institutions and banks that are going to move over here partly or entirely as a result of this Brexit discussion.”
That number is considerably more than previously predicted by Germany’s minister of economics Tarek Al-Wazir, who just weeks ago told the same newspaper that 15 UK-based banks had committed to “creating or expanding their European operations in Frankfurt”.
And Lucia Puttrich, the Hessian Minister for Federal and European Affairs, who is handling the Brexit transition for the state, said she would be “very surprised” if that Mr Al-Wazir’s figures had changed, when she was asked about Mr Bouffier’s comments.
The Hessian Ministry of Economics declined to comment on the Minister President’s numbers, Echo Online reported, but said: “A number of decisions have indeed been made in recent weeks.”
But financial group Frankfurt Main Finance said theMr Bouffier’s claim was “absolutely correct”.
The organisation’s chief executive Hubertus Väth said larger institutes will have organised arrangements for European departments to relocate fully to Frankfurt by the end of 2017.
He added: “In about 20 cases, new institutes will be set up here.”
The claims come as EU member states scrap over certain London-based European institutes that will have to relocate back into the bloc after Brexit.
Ministers have been accused of holding a Eurovison-style competition over where the European Medicines Agency and European Banking Authority should move to once Britain withdraws.
Member states put forward wildly different proposals and priorities for why the institutions should move to their financial districts.
Some complained bitterly about the criteria for the move, effectively shutting them out of the race, whilst others dismissed rival European capitals as places the prospective staff wouldn’t want to live.
Earlier this week Denmark made a move on EU nationals living in the UK, trying to entice skilled workers to Copenhagen with the promise of good salaries at top Danish companies like Lego and Bang and Olufsen.
Meanwhile Howard Davies, who leads the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, said that the EU was deliberately dragging out Brexit talks to entice anxious bankers.
The banking chief warned that a Brexit transition deal needs to be in place by early next year – or else, the country faces an unprecedented loss of businesses.