And Facts4EU has suggested the research, published by the European Banking Authority, offers no conclusive proof that the bankers who have quit the Square Mile for the continent did so because of Brexit in any case. The EBA’s report, published earlier this week, suggested the number of bankers earning more than €1million a year, including bonus and pensions, fell by 95 last year.
In his report, Facts4EU spokesman David Evans comments: “The EU’s Paris-based banking regulatory authority struggles to find any good news for the EU.
“Europe’s top bankers have continued to shun the EU’s anti-Brexit moves, preferring to stay in the City of London and the rest of the UK, the latest official EU report shows.”
The UK remained “completely dominant” when it came to the location of Europe’s top bankers, Mr Evans suggested – a fact underlined by the EBA’s figures.
He explained: “Readers are aware that Facts4EU.Org always aims to present key information in simple, ‘at-a-glance’ charts, such as the one we have produced above.
“Very often (as in this case) we are forced laboriously to enter numbers into spreadsheets manually, as the data is not provided in spreadsheet form.”
Mr Evans contrasted an official chart published by the EBA with one which Facts4EU had produced itself.
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“In its latest report – the last which will include the UK – the EBA struggled to find any evidence of the ‘brain drain’ which was predicted by the Project Fear campaign, warning of massive jobs losses in the City of London and other major UK financial centres.”
The report’s summary statement claimed Brexit had “affected the distribution of high earners across the EU” with a number of them “relocating from the UK to the EU”.
However, Mr Evans said: “On reading the full report the UK’s numbers decreased by only 95 and the EBA presents no evidence that this very small number was caused by Brexit. Even this small number (which would have represented a dramatic fall for any of the EU countries) still left the United Kingdom in a completely dominant position.”
Referring to the doom-laden predictions of Remainers with respect to the impact of Brexit on the City, Mr Evans added: “As with all Project Fear threats, this turned out to be yet another false one and the biblical exodus has failed to materialise.
“It is important to note that the UK granted EU financial firms ‘equivalence’, allowing them to operate unhindered after Brexit. Conversely, the EU has never reciprocated.
“When it came to the UK-EU ‘Trade and Cooperation Agreement’ the EU refused point-blank to include financial services. Nevertheless the City continues to thrive – and is rising to the various challenges in its customary way – despite the EU’s best endeavours.”
On the subject of the EBA itself, Mr Evans said: “Unsurprisingly, the European Banking Authority is run by a Frenchman, François-Louis Michaud.
“Monsieur Michaud is the Executive Director and is also a Deputy Director General at the European Central Bank.
“Facts4EU.Org can see no legitimate reason why a logarithmic scale should suddenly have been used, thereby suppressing the clear fact of the UK’s dominance in top banking positions in Europe.
“The only reason we can think of was to distort the true picture of the continued success of UK banking – ‘despite Brexit’.”
Express.co.uk has contacted the EBA for comment.