FILE PHOTO: The head quarters of Germany's largest business bank, Deutsche Bank, is photographed in Frankfurt, Germany, December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

DUESSELDORF (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank's DBKGn.DE chief executive expects to move far fewer than 4,000 jobs to Frankfurt following Britain's departure from the European Union, he told Swiss daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung.

Deutsche Bank is headquartered in Frankfurt, but has large operations in the UK with 8,600 staff based there.

“The 4,000 number that comes up again and again in media reports is much too high,” John Cryan was quoted as saying in the paper’s Saturday edition, adding that initially several hundreds of jobs will be created in Frankfurt, but also in other cities such as Milan and Paris.

“Mainly bankers, technology experts and traders work in London and they want to stay there,” Cryan was quoted as saying. “The booking center will move for sure, but that affects less jobs than many think.”

Deutsche Bank is planning a new booking center in Frankfurt to handle the billions of euros of non-European business currently routed through London, which may not be allowed after Brexit.

While the bank has never been specific about how many jobs may move from London following Brexit, a senior official earlier this year indicated that up to 4,000 may be affected.

In April, Chief Regulatory Officer Sylvie Matherat had said: “For front office people, if you want to deal with EU clients you need to be based in the EU, in continental Europe. Does that mean that I have to move all the front office people to Germany or not? ... and we are speaking of 2,000 people.”

She had added that local supervisors were asking for risk management to be done locally, a demand that would require more jobs to be moved. “It means another 2,000 people,” she had said at the time.