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(Repeats Friday item)
* Europeans trying to clip City's wings after Brexit
* British banks lobbying to keep access to EU market
* Finance sector sets up group to decide strategy
* But UK government in disarray, some European ties weak
* Bankers turn to headhunters for exit strategy
By Sinead Cruise and Lawrence White
LONDON, July 1 (Reuters) - A week after Britons votedthemselves out of the European Union, many London-based bankersand their employers face two options if they are to secure theirfutures: lobby or leave.
Some investment banks, anxious not to stir speculation of anexodus from the historic City of London and its moderncounterpart at Canary Wharf, have given out "business as usual"messages since last week's shock referendum result.
But beyond the soothing words the wider industry is hastilyorganising a lobbying effort in the hope London can keep sellingfinancial services across Europe, a right to which it has becomeaccustomed but may lapse when Britain finally exits the28-nation bloc.
The alternative for banks and bankers, growing increasinglyinsecure in an information vacuum that has developed since theJune 23 vote, is to get out. Headhunters report a level ofanxious calls they haven't seen since the 2008 global crisis,with bankers asking about prospects in rival financial centresthat remain in the EU, or those in Asia and the United States.
Banks and other financial firms have rallied together,forming a group to devise a strategy for protecting the turf ofan industry that is Britain's biggest exporter and accounts formore than 10 percent of its tax revenues.
Even Britain's biggest lenders are relying on the group -led by Shriti Vadera, chairwoman of the UK arm of Spain's BancoSantander who is also a former business minister - forguidance in such uncertain times.
"We are looking to them to have an intelligent response,"Barclays chairman John McFarlane told an industry eventon Thursday. "We neither know the shape or direction of thingsto come. It's far from certain what we might be able to securefrom discussions with the EU."
With the British government in disarray, Europeanpoliticians are threatening to clip the wings of the Londonfinancial centre that is home to more than 250 foreign banks andmore than three-quarters of the EU's capital markets activity.
French President Francois Hollande has backed calls forLondon, the world's biggest currency trading centre, to lose itsright to clear deals denominated in euros. Likewise, the rightof banks based in Britain to operate across the EU under thebloc's financial "passporting" arrangement could also go if itloses access to the single European market.
DISTANT SEPTEMBER
Britain has yet even to say when it will formally inform theEU of its intention to leave, a move that will start two yearsof divorce negotiations. Prime Minister David Cameron has saidhe will resign, but left the formal exit notification to hissuccessor who is unlikely to be installed until September.
Leading "Leave" campaigners have also yet to say preciselywhat they want, beyond stating their desire to control the rightof EU citizens to work in Britain - something Brussels says isimpossible if the country wants to stay in the single market.
So while the financial sector is poised to lobby, it haslittle idea of whom it must present its case to on the Britishside.
"We are ready to talk, but we don't know who we should betalking to," said a senior banking industry source involved inthe discussions. "No-one has defined 'leave', so we don't knowwhat it is that we're dealing with ... September feels a verylong way off."
Bankers said their message to European officials is thatkeeping Britain in the single market would be better foreconomic growth and jobs across the bloc. Fights over wherebanks do their business and forcing them into major overhauls oftheir operations would damage the broader financial system, theyargue.
Some dislike being told what to do, such as HSBC ChairmanDouglas Flint, whose bank decided only earlier this year againstmoving its headquarters from London. "Politicians can't dictatewhere things are done," he told Thursday's TheCityUK annualconference.
Sometimes the relationships needed for lobbying are only nowbeing established. The benefits of passporting have meant thatU.S. investment banks in particular have rarely discussed broadmarket access issues with European officials, meaning they arestarting their charm offensive from scratch.
WHERE TO GO NEXT
Rumours are swirling that banks and other financial firms,which together employ more than 2 million people across Britain,will move staff to the likes of Frankfurt, Paris or Dublin.
Investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have moved quickly to quell speculation they are about todo so.
But some bankers, especially those involved in mergers andacquisitions, fear a repeat of the heavy job cuts, tumblingsalaries and sky-high stress levels during the 2008-09 crisis.
"People in UK M&A know they aren't getting paid bonuses thisyear ... But that's just one of their troubles," said THSPartners Portfolio Manager Xavier Van Hove. "They know banks aregoing to have to fire people so they are very conscious of that.And the Europeans among them are wondering where they go next."
Stephane Rambosson, managing partner for the UK and head offinancial services at headhunter DHR International, said he hadtaken more than a dozen calls from senior London-basedinvestment, M&A and equity capital markets bankers in the pastweek.
The questions they asked were all the same: how safe is myjob? Where will I need to move my family?
"The last time it happened was during the crisis, whenpeople were equally concerned about job prospects and thedirection of their careers," Rambosson said. "People know thisis something they have to plan for but there's little for themto go on right now."
ESCAPE ROUTES
Some in the industry are contemplating leaving Europealtogether.
"We are getting more resumes every day from London," saidMatthew Hoyle, who runs a financial services headhunting firm inHong Kong. "I don't think many people in London are very keen tomove to Paris, Frankfurt ... English is a problem there and it'sreally very different from London."
Uday Singh, a New York-based partner with consulting firmA.T. Kearney, said he believes London-based financial executiveswill give serious thought to moving to the United States.
"The U.S. actually has a pretty permissive immigrationregime where qualified company executives are concerned. It's amatter of a couple of months of visa processing and the job cancertainly be done from here," he said.
Leaders of British banking remain hopeful that the nextgovernment will negotiate continued access to the single market. For that reason, they say they are not yet ready to spendbillions beefing up or launching subsidiaries in the EU.
"We are all working on multiple scenarios. For many firms,it would be premature to activate all that pre-referendumplanning," said Clare Woodman, global chief operating officerfor institutional securities at Morgan Stanley.
But others worry whether the industry - still tainted by thebank failures of 2008-09, 'fat cat' bonuses and a magnet forpublic scorn - can secure the backing it needs.
"We won't gain much from trying to remind the electorate howimportant we are to them, we need to get other advocates for ourindustry," David Sproul, Chief Executive of Deloitte told theTheCityUK conference.
Meanwhile, London's rivals are moving aggressively tocapitalise on its limbo by wooing bankers.
"Finance ministries are getting in touch. I won't say whowe're talking to but, well, French-speaking, German-speaking,Spanish-speaking, Dutch-speaking, English-speaking countries areall interested," the senior banking source said.
"It's very much on the lines of 'we are sorry you gotdivorced, would you like to go on a date?" (Additional reporting by Dan Freed in New York, Denny Thomasand Sumeet Chatterjee in Hong Kong, Andrew MacAskill, CarolynCohn, Huw Jones in London; Editing by Rachel Armstrong and DavidStamp)
