The European Banking Authority has strong symbolic value among cities jostling to become Continental Europe’s financial capital. Its departure serves as a warning of the consequences of Brexit for London, currently the banking capital of Europe, and illustrates the fierce competition from other capitals for the spoils.

“There is no upside for the City of London” from Brexit, said Nicolas Véron, a senior fellow at Bruegel, a research organization in Brussels. “It will lose business, not gain.”

From Britain’s point of view, the European Medicines Agency is the larger of the two losses in tangible terms, as it has around 890 staff members. It oversees the approval of drugs for use across Europe, has an annual budget of more than $300 million and generates significant additional revenue for London. For example, on most weekdays its visiting experts fill 350 hotel rooms in the city.

Its departure also underscores continuing questions about how British pharmaceutical companies will be regulated after the country’s withdrawal from the bloc, known as Brexit, a shift scheduled for March 2019.

The sector is an important one, and enjoys substantially more public support among Britons than finance, the image of which has been tarnished in recent years.