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* CEO says no staff to move for at least 2 years
* HSBC would set up French holding company
* Shares up 1.89 percent by 1259 GMT (Adds background)
By Pamela Barbaglia
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 18 (Reuters) - HSBC becamethe first major bank to detail plans to move jobs out of Londonafter Brexit, saying it will relocate staff responsible forgenerating around a fifth of its UK-based trading revenue toParis after Britain leaves the EU.
Major financial firms warned for months before Britain'sreferendum on European Union membership in June that they wouldmove jobs out of the country if there was a vote to leave, buthave set out few details since on how many will go or where to.
"We will move in about two years time when Brexit becomeseffective," the bank's Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver toldReuters on Wednesday at the annual meeting of the World EconomicForum in Davos, in a potentially damaging first blow to London'sstatus as Europe's main financial centre.
Other banks are expected to announce more concrete plans forhow they will adapt to Brexit in the coming months after PrimeMinister Theresa May confirmed in a speech on Tuesday thatBritain would leave the European single market.
HSBC, Europe's biggest bank, is at an advantage to its majorU.S. rivals as it already has a large subsidiary in Paris thatholds most of the licences needed by an investment bank, meaningGulliver has been able to set out more detailed plans.
It is expected to move around 1,000 staff who are involvedin trading products such as European stocks that are regulatedby the EU. HSBC's global banking and markets division thathouses those roles made profits of $384 million in the UK in2015, according to a company filing.
The shift of jobs will be a blow to the City of London,which has been lobbying since the Brexit vote for financialfirms in Britain to retain their EU 'passporting rights' which lets them sell their services across the bloc.
But passporting is unlikely to continue with Britain outsidethe European single market, and firms say they are now likely topress ahead with plans to move staff, even though May said shewould try to negotiate some form of market access to the bloc.
The City's best hope will be for the government to agree atransitional arrangement whereby finance firms can continue tooperate out of Britain across the EU for a number of years afterBrexit, in the hope that a favourable access deal is achieved inthe interim.
"We would like to see a transitional agreement announced assoon as possible," Mark Boleat, policy chairman at the City ofLondon Corporation, said in a statement on Tuesday after May'sspeech.
HSBC shares were up 1.89 percent by 1269 GMT, against a 0.45percent fall in the broader European banks index. (Writing by Lawrence White and Rachel Armstrong; Editing byJason Neely/Keith Weir/Alexander Smith)
