Thread by @uk_domain_names

Barclays received legal permission in January 2019 to move €190 billion (£166 billion) of assets from the UK to Dublin in advance of 29 March 2019. The sum represents about 15% of the bank's total assets. It is doubling its Dublin operation to 300 staff.
bbc.co.uk/news/business-…

These things don't happen overnight, even if the news has only been widely reported now that the asset move was confirmed by the High Court. Barclays started putting the Brexit contingency plan in motion back in 2017.
itv.com/news/2019-01-3…

Remarkably, even that eye-watering sum is less than they actually wanted to move. They had asked in their original court filing in October 2018 to be able to move €250 billion worth of business.
irishtimes.com/business/finan…

To put the €190bn amount in context, about 2% of the UK's whole financial industry is walking out of the door just through this one transfer. But there's lots more Brexit pain to come (some already inflicted) as £800 billion is expected to leave the UK.
cityam.com/271194/brexit-…

This whole affair illustrates the "hidden danger" of Brexit: there are countless firms now executing on contingency plans that have been months or more often years in the making. A mere plan doesn't often make the news - but job losses, asset transfers and factory closures will!

So the Barclays story is just once example of the tip of the Brexit damage iceberg. The thread below contains another 179. Just think how much more bleak the picture will be by Brexit Day! We could still choose a different path. We could still stop Brexit.

https://twitter.com/uk_domain_names/status/1087666286648283136

And if you're reading this and thinking "How does this affect me? I'm not a banker." you should understand that 3.5% of people work in the UK financial sector, yet it delivers a massive 11% of the entire UK tax take. In other words, our Government is hugely reliant on its taxes.

Once assets leave, those taxes will usually no longer be paid to the Treasury, but to the country to which the assets moved. Less tax revenue for us means less to spend on the NHS, housing, tackling homelessness, etc.

P.S. If you want to do some background reading, the legal mechanism Barclays used is called a "part vii transfer" or "part vii transfer scheme". They're not alone. Other banks, insurers etc already have used the same method to transfer assets out of the UK, or announced plans to.