Is London's Coveted Title As Europe's Most Important Financial Hub Up For Grabs?

London was considered to be not only to be Europe's most important financial hub but according to some studies, the world's most important financial center.

Now that the United Kingdom has voted to separate itself from the European Union, London's coveted status is now in question. According to the Wall Street Journal, it could even be up for grabs by Paris, Frankfurt, Dublin, among others.

The Wall Street Journal reported Ireland's foreign investment agency will reconfirm its Emerald Isle is still part of the European Union and offered help to move people over.

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Alain Pithon, Paris Europlace's secretary general was quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying that it has a "card to play" in convincing British banks to move to France. The country also offers tax breaks for companies outside of the country to relocate.

Officials in Frankfurt also set up a special hotline for banks that may move thousands of workers outside of London.

The financial industry represents approximately 12 percent of the United Kingdom's economic output in 2014, while 700,000 financial professionals work in London with another 1.5 million working elsewhere in the country.

However, a lot of banks set up in London are used to access the international capital markets, not necessarily markets across Europe.

Finally, a mass exodus of workers outside of England has its sets of challenges. For starters, few other European cities share London's time zone, language, common law and cosmopolitan appeal.