Exclusive: StanChart presses ahead with Frankfurt job moves as EU rejects Brexit plan

By Emma Rumney and Lawrence White

LONDON (Reuters) - British bank Standard Chartered has begun interviewing candidates for the around 20 banking jobs that it is moving to Frankfurt because of Brexit, Chief Financial Officer Andy Halford said on Wednesday.

The Asia, Africa and Middle East-focused lender is applying to convert its branch in Frankfurt into a subsidiary so that it can continue to serve clients in the European Union after Britain leaves it in March 2019.

"Because that provides a degree of certainty irrespective of what will happen on the political front, we will continue with that," Halford told Reuters in an interview at the bank's headquarters in London.

British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Wednesday that banks should continue to be able to access the bloc's financial services markets after Brexit, making moves like StanChart's unnecessary, but the EU in draft guidelines for a trade deal rebuffed that plan.

(Editing by Silvia Aloisi)