Shares of Barclays and other European banks fell double digits Friday after the United Kingdom stunned global markets by voting to leave the European Union.
U.K. citizens approved leaving with 51.9 percent of the vote. Markets meanwhile, had priced in a win for the remain camp.
Barclays fell nearly 30 percent in early trading Friday. It recovered losses later and ended the day down more than 17 percent. The stock is down more than 29 percent year to date and nearly 44 percent year over year.
"The answers are complex but our position is not: we will not break our stride in delivering the Barclays of the future," Jes Staley, Barclays CEO said in a statement, adding that the bank has serviced clients in London for more than 325 years. "That does not change today."
"The strategy we announced on 1 March, 2016 was not conditional on the UK remaining in the EU. We are a transatlantic consumer, corporate and investment bank, anchored in the UK and the US," Staley said.
Other London-focused banks moved down in lockstep. Shares of RBS, Lloyds, and Deutsche Bank all dropped double digits.
RBS dipped more than 27 percent, Lloyds was down more than 21 percent, and BNP Paribas fell more than 17 percent. Credit Suisse and Deutsche bank held double digit losses at 16 percent and 17 percent, respectively.
"I'm afraid that this is not such a good day for Europe," John Cryan, co-CEO of Deutsche Bank said in statement Friday. "At this stage, we cannot fully foresee the consequences, but there's no doubt that they will be negative on all sides."
Although the bank is headquartered in Germany, Deutsche Bank has a strong presence in the U.K., and Cryan said the bank is "well prepared". "However, there's no doubt that the uncertainty created by the referendum's results will be a challenge," he said.