(Bloomberg) -- The aftershocks from Britain’spolitical earthquake buffeted markets and policy makers, creatingpolitical upheaval in London, dismay in European capitals and panicon trading floors around the world.

The pound plunged to the lowest since 1985, global stocks tumbled and bonds andgold rallied after U.K. voters decided in a referendum to leave theEuropean Union. Prime Minister David Cameron resigned, saying he’dserve another three months, after a 52 percent majority rejectedhis pro-EU campaign.

“The British people have made a very clear decision to take adifferent path, and as such, I think the country requires freshleadership,” Cameron told reporters outside his Downing Streetresidence, choking back tears. A jubilant Nigel Farage, leader ofthe U.K. Independence Party, said “the euroskeptic genie is out ofthe bottle and it will now not be put back.”

Related: 'Dear Colleague': UK bosses make caseagainst Brexit to employees

The result sets the U.K. up for years of bitter divorce talkswith the first round likely to come at an EU leaders’ summit nextweek. Britain must now count the economic and financial cost of anexit that Cameron warned would spark a recession.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and HSBC Holdings Plc have said aso-called Brexit would lead them to move thousands of jobs out ofLondon. Central bankers pledged to safeguard financialstability.

Johnson win

The outcome is a victory for Boris Johnson, the former mayor ofLondon who broke with former schoolmate Cameron to help lead the“Out” campaign and installs him as a potential successor. Thevote widens fissures in the U.K. by raising the prospect of anotherpush for Scottish independence and leaves London as a pro-EUisland. Johnson was greeted by jeers and boos when he brieflyemerged from his north London home this morning.

Beyond Britain’s shores, populist insurgents in France, Italyand the Netherlands cheered, as did Donald Trump. France’s MarineLe Pen called for an immediate referendum there. Above all, theoutcome shows just how disillusioned western voters have becomewith the political establishment for failing to deliver moreinclusive economic growth in the era of globalization.

“This is the biggest shock to European politics since the fallof the Berlin Wall,” said Rob Ford, professor of politics atManchester University.

In Europe, governments from Ireland to Malta convened emergencycabinet meetings to discuss the way forward.

President Barack Obama issued a statement saying that the"special relationship" between the U.S. and U.K. would endure. "TheUnited Kingdom and the European Union will remain indispensablepartners of the United States even as they begin negotiating theirongoing relationship to ensure continued stability, security, andprosperity.”

Crisis echoes

The market rout had echoes of the 2008-2009 financial crisis.“Panic is palpable,” said John Gorman, the Tokyo-based head of U.S.debt trading for Asia and the Pacific at Nomura Holdings Inc., evenbefore European markets opened.

The pound fell to as low as $1.3229, before trading down 7.4percent at $1.3784 at 2:57 p.m. in London and still on course forits worst day on record -- far exceeding its previous recorddecline in 1992. That’s when it fell 4.1 percent on BlackWednesday, the day the currency was forced out of Europe’sexchange-rate mechanism. The MSCI World Index of stocks fell 3.9percent and gold surged 4.6 percent.

Finance officials have are already started firefighting. TheBank of England said it was “monitoring developments closely” andwill take all necessary steps to ensure stability. Governor MarkCarney may end up having to cut interest rates or revivequantitative easing. He pledged an extra 250 billion pounds ($345billion) for the financial system.

‘Negative’

“This is not such a good day for Europe,” Deutsche Bank AG ChiefExecutive Officer John Cryan said in a statement. “We cannot fullyforesee the consequences, but there’s no doubt that they will benegative on all sides.”

Financial services, which employs more than 2 million peoplenationwide and paid 66 billion pounds in tax last year, isparticularly threatened. The City of London’s status as a financialcapital may now be eroded, especially if the U.K. loses rights thatallow its banks to sell their products and services throughout theEU.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who has 16,000 employees in London andother British cities, said this month a vote to leave could mean aquarter of those jobs might be cut. Morgan Stanley and HSBC havemade similar noises.

Global companies said they would reassess their U.K. investmentsin the wake of the vote. Hankook Tire Worldwide Co. of South Koreamay diversify “global production capability”; a board member ofJapanese car-parts maker Exedy Corp. said it may have to considermoving its U.K. office to continental Europe. Maurice Levy, chiefof French advertising giant Publicis Groupe SA, said it was “out ofthe question” to open new sites in the U.K. as the advertisingmarket will “surely suffer.”

The result marks a victory for a rag-tag band of politicians andexecutives who took on Britain’s establishment and won.Conservatives Johnson and Michael Gove broke with Cameron to form aloose alliance with the U.K. Independence Party, arguing that theisland nation can go it alone in an era of globalization. It wasalso a massive victory for Farage, who has campaigned for the U.K.to leave the EU for a quarter century.

“Let June 23rd go down in our history as our Independence Day,”said Farage, a former commodities broker.

Tapping into voters’ worries about immigration, the pro-Brexitleaders said that Britain can only exert full control over itsborders and budget by leaving the EU. That promise overcamerepeated warnings from Cameron and a cast of supporters thatincluded the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the U.S.president.

Exit trigger

The next steps are unclear as politicians in Britain and therest of Europe feel their way through the unprecedented situation.Cameron said that the U.K. will wait until a new prime minister isin place before triggering exit talks and invoking Article 50 ofthe Lisbon Treaty.

That threatens an immediate clash with Germany, which signaledit will push for a quick exit. Negotiations should beconcluded within a maximum of two years, said Manfred Weber, whoheads the conservative EPP group in the European Parliament. “Therecannot be any special treatment,” Weber said on Twitter. “Leavemeans leave.”

For the EU and its most powerful leader, German ChancellorAngela Merkel, the result presents yet another challenge afteryears of crisis. EU unity has already been sorely tested byGreece’s seemingly endless debt woes, sanctions on Russia and theSyrian refugee crisis.

Now, Merkel and French President Francois Hollande need to rallyconfidence in a project increasingly questioned by populists likeLe Pen in France and Italy’s Five Star movement. To Merkel andHollande, who discussed the outcome for 20 minutes on Fridaymorning, the EU is a symbol of Europe’s resurgence from World WarII.

Tough talks

Among the first decisions for Merkel and Hollande will be howtough they want to be on the U.K. in the upcoming negotiations,especially as some countries will surely want to make an example ofBritain to stop others from leaving. The first indications of theirjoint position may come on Monday, when Hollande travels to Berlinahead of a June 28-29 meeting of EU leaders. Foreign ministers fromthe EU’s six founding members are due to meet in Berlin onSaturday, and finance ministers could confer as soon as thisweekend.

A key question now will be who leads Britain’s negotiationsafter one of the biggest foreign-policy failures by a British primeminister in the modern era.

Who’s in

Johnson is the bookmakers’ favorite to succeed Cameron. Otherpotential heirs include Justice Secretary Gove and Home SecretaryTheresa May. Whoever takes over is likely to seek his or her ownmandate with another general election, meaning voters across theU.K. may have to go to the polls for a third time in two years.

The vote doesn’t end the sovereignty struggles. Scottish FirstMinister Nicola Sturgeon said the option of another independencereferendum for Scotland, where 62 percent voted to “Remain” in theEU, is “on the table.” The vote also complicates things for theIrish, who will now face barriers to the free movement of goods andworkers between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

“I don’t know the forces they have unleashed in winning this,”said Steve Fielding, a professor of political history at theUniversity of Nottingham. “I don’t know this is in the capacity ofany one person to control.”

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