Goldman Sachs (GS.N) has hired former European Commission President
Jose Manuel Barroso to be an advisor and non-executive chairman of its
international business, the U.S. bank said on Friday, as it grapples
with the fallout from Britain’s exit from the European Union.
Barroso
served as president of the commission, the EU’s executive arm, from
2004 to 2014 and was prime minister of Portugal from 2002 to 2004,
Goldman said in a statement.
Goldman Sachs and other
U.S. investment banks are seen as particularly vulnerable to Brexit
since they rely on the EU’s “passporting” regime that allows them to
offer services across the bloc while basing most of their staff and
operations in the UK. Banks have warned that if their British outposts
lose their “passports” they will have to move some employees and
business units to alternative bases in the EU.
Goldman
Sachs International, which Barroso will chair, is headquartered in
London and of its roughly 6,000 staff fewer than 1,000 are based outside
Britain.
Barroso is credited with helping the euro
zone survive the 2009-13 debt crisis by establishing a financial rescue
fund, enacting stricter budget rules and tightening financial
regulation.
He was also a signatory to the Lisbon
Treaty that revamped the bloc’s complex institutions after French and
Dutch voters rejected a European constitution.
Barroso
will help the firm as it advises clients on dealing with the ensuing
“challenging and uncertain economic and market environment,” Goldman
Sachs International co-chiefs Michael Sherwood and Richard Gnodde said
in the statement.
The question which obviously
immediately arises following Mr.Barroso's employment by the US financial
giant Goldman Sachs is that of conflict of interest, given the stature
former European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso had in the EU
and, consequently, the confidential information available to him about
EU member nations classified financial and economic data.
Insure-Digest
