Australian banks and financial services companies are moving swiftly to reconfigure their European operations as the United Kingdom inches closer to a full withdrawal from the European Union.
Westpac, which has had a presence in London since 1853, is poised to shift material parts of its institutional banking business from its Camomile Street headquarters in The City to Frankfurt over the next 12 months.
While it is still not clear how many staff will be asked to relocate to Frankfurt, a Westpac spokesman confirmed to Banking Day that the company had applied for a full banking licence with Germany's prudential regulator - Bundesanstalt fur Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht - otherwise known as BaFin.
"We have a plan to set up a banking operation in Frankfurt," the Westpac spokesman said.
"We have submitted an application for a full banking licence with BaFin and informed other European regulators of our plans.
"It's early days but the moves are underway."
Commonwealth Bank says it plans to retain a large presence in London but a spokesperson confirmed that the group had applied for a banking licence with Dutch authorities.
CBA expects to relocate only a handful of its London staff to Amsterdam after it secures regulatory approvals for a licence in the Netherlands.
"We are currently pursuing the establishment of a new CommBank subsidiary, to be located in Amsterdam," a CBA spokesperson said.
"The Netherlands is a strong fit for our business, given the alignment with our global industry sectors and product capabilities.
"Amsterdam is also a developing FinTech hub, providing further alignment with CommBank's focus on innovation to deliver our strategic goals."
The spokesperson could not say when final licence approvals for CBA were likely to be completed.
"Decisions on the size of the office will be based on client needs, ensuring we can provide the best service to our customers and meet the local regulatory requirements."
CBA's London branch will remain a key plank in the group's global network and will continue to offer a full range of banking and global markets products to customers outside the European Economic Area.
ANZ is expected to experience the least disruption of the Australian major banks when Britain finally exits the European Union because it already holds full banking licences issued by French and German regulators.
A bank spokesperson said ANZ had no plans to relocate any of its 200 UK staff in "the foreseeable future".
ANZ is in a unique position, compared to the other Australian banks operating in Europe that currently rely on special passport rights to sell financial services in the European Economic Area.
Those rights could be undermined if banks such as CBA, Westpac and NAB do not secure branch licences in another European country after Brexit takes effect.
Mystery surrounds how NAB plans to reshape its operations as a result of Brexit.
"We are considering all options for NAB's presence following Brexit, and will continue to support our customers across Europe," a NAB spokesman said.
Macquarie Group has a double-pronged strategy in place to manage the transition of its European operations over the next two years.
It plans to relocate some banking functions from London to Dublin after applying for a banking licence from Irish regulators. It currently has 30 staff employed in its Irish operations.
The company already has a substantial asset management presence in Luxembourg and may relocate functions from London if it is required.
Brexit is also forcing smaller Australian-owned financial services businesses to review the way they do business in Europe.
Melbourne-based payments business - Optal Limited - last year generated most of its $300 million-plus revenue in the UK and Europe.
Optal's main business is issuing virtual MasterCards to merchants in the travel and hospitality industry and leveraging proprietary technology to execute cross-border transactions in 34 currencies.
Managing director Rob Bishop said Optal had no plans to scale down the size of its London headquarters but the company had set up an office in Dublin as a "Plan B".
"We plan to retain all of our 80 staff in London but to me it's just sensible to take precautions," Bishop said.
"If UK companies lose 'passporting rights' to distribute their products and services in Europe, that could affect us."