Wall Street weighs into Brexit vote as Cameron talks up EU

Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are making large donations to the campaign to keep Britain inside the European Union, sources said, highlighting the concern among some of the world's biggest banks over the impact of a British exit.

Goldman Sachs has agreed to donate a “substantial six-figure sum” according to one source, while JPMorgan was preparing to make a similar donation, another source said.

Another US bank, Morgan Stanley, is also likely to make donation but has yet to decide a sum to contribute, a source said. The bank declined to comment.

In the face of growing Euroscepticism among the British electorate and political pressure from within his own party, prime minister David Cameron has promised to hold a referendum on Britain's EU membership by the end of 2017.

On Thursday, Mr Cameron urged business leaders at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos to speak up about the benefits of Britain staying in a reformed EU.

Reforms

Mr Cameron is hoping to head off the threat of a British exit, or ‘Brexit’, by negotiating a deal on reforms to the bloc that address concerns about immigration, sovereignty and competitiveness at an EU summit next month.

He received some support on Thursday from French president Francois Hollande, who said none of Britain's EU reform demands were "insurmountable", but that they must not prevent the euro zone from pursuing further integration.

Mr Cameron said very good progress had been made with the EU but that they were “not there yet”.

With British public opinion finely balanced and renegotiations with Mr Cameron’s EU peers meeting resistance, multinational businesses in Britain are facing up to the risk that the vote could sever links with the country’s biggest trading partner.

The donations by three heavyweight US banks with heavy European presence reflect the financial sector’s acute concerns that Britain’s role as a global financing hub and major trading centre for the euro could be under threat if it gives up its membership.

British banks were more circumspect in pledging their support. A source familiar with Barclays said the firm had a policy not to make political donations, while a source with knowledge of Royal Bank of Scotland said the bank was waiting for clarity on the government's position.

Reuters