Financial Services leaving London to settle in Amsterdam or Paris : To what extent do transaction costs influence the transition of Financial Firms leaving London to settle in Amsterdam or Paris?

To what extent do transaction costs influence the transition of Financial Firms leaving London to settle in Amsterdam or Paris? Transaction costs will explain the behavior of financial firms in relocating in Amsterdam or Paris. In this research the Transaction Cost Theory (Williamson, 1993) (TCT) will be complemented by theories on financial market integration by Howarth and Quaglia (2018) and the fragmented financial industry by Scott Lavery (2018). An analysis will be established based on qualitative secondary data, consisting of peerreviewed scientific articles, financial firms’ statements, newspapers and official documents of national regulators and the EU. The analysis will provide a comparison between Amsterdam and Paris aiming to answer the question whether transactions costs are the driving factors in relocations. This question will be analyzed by a systematic approach with three central hypotheses derived from the theories. Assuming that firms are focused on achieving lowest possible financial costs. That we can expect more movement once the factors influencing transaction costs become more important and that these factors will initiate relocations to Paris or Amsterdam. Based on these hypotheses, a certain effect of movement can be expected towards a certain financial center. In this research London’s financial center will serve as a measuring stick to which transaction costs in Amsterdam and Paris will be tested to determine the correctness of the hypotheses and to answer the research question.