Frankfurt and Dublin are emerging as the clear favorites for post-Brexit relocation among U.K.-based banks, according to a top official at Germany's central bank.
"From the discussions I have, it is my clear impression that Dublin and Frankfurt are the two cities where there is most interest (from City lenders). We have received quite a number of applications," Andreas Dombret, an executive board member at the German Bundesbank, told CNBC on Tuesday.
"We encourage the banks to finalize their thinking, especially the ones that have not done so, and to really think where they want to move and how they want to move … Let's all not try to walk through the same narrow door in the 11th hour," he added.
Britain's financial services industry has been quietly preparing for Brexit given that it's likely to lose its – these are special licenses that allow U.K.-based banks to sell their services across the whole of the EU.
The negotiations between London and Brussels are still ongoing and it remains unclear how many employees will have to be moved from London to other European cities. At the moment, the disruption appears to be minimal compared to the overall size of the industry.
But there are with Frankfurt and Dublin perceived to be the top destinations for institutions that wish to continue working with clients across the EU.
Slow pace of applications
So far, fewer than 10 of the approximately 40 banks that conduct EU business out of London have applied for a license to continue banking in the bloc after the U.K. leaves, regulatory sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
The slow pace of applications is raising concern at the European Central Bank — the EU's top banking supervisor — that some lenders are not doing enough to prepare for Brexit, according to the news agency.
'Not that worried' over possibility of a systemic banking crisis
When asked whether vulnerable European banks could trigger a across the continent, Dombret said that such a prospect "doesn't keep me up at night."
"I'm not that worried about a systemic crisis at all. There are regions, there are sectors and there are certain banks in certain countries which are more exposed than others but it is not a system wide or country wide issue," he said.
— Reuters and CNBC's Silvia Amaro contributed to this report.