10 July 2017

Bloomberg: Paris insists battle for Brexit jobs isn’t over as Dimon visits

France’s financial lobby insists the battle for post-Brexit banking jobs isn’t over.

Leaders of big European and global banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon and HSBC Holdings Plc’s Stuart Gulliver are meeting in the French capital Tuesday for the annual forum organized by Paris Europlace, its main financial lobby group, to discuss the future of banking in Europe. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who last week announced three finance-friendly initiatives, gave the keynote address over lunch.

Until now, stiff firing and hiring rules, a reputation for high taxes and a spike in political risk during this year’s presidential election held back Paris’s efforts to win jobs as the U.K. prepares to quit the European Union. While Frankfurt and Dublin have garnered several relocation commitments, HSBC is the only major international bank that has publicly expressed a preference for Paris. But French politicians and executives say they have more cards to play as President Emmanuel Macron, a former investment banker, prepares to cut taxes and overhaul French labor law.

“We want Paris to become the No. 1 financial hub after Brexit,” he said in English to a conference hall notably fuller than it has been in recent years. “The government is committed to making Paris more attractive” to finance and business.

While banks including Standard Chartered Plc and Nomura Holdings Inc. have picked Frankfurt as their new EU base, any flow of jobs out of London is likely to be slow and scattered across several cities, meaning that Paris, home of four systemic lenders and a large asset-management industry, can get a slice of the pie, said Arnaud de Bresson, Paris Europlace’s managing director.

Paris is hoping to lure 20,000 jobs from the U.K. as firms seek EU locations to secure continued market access to the bloc, according to Paris Europlace. HSBC, which has a French retail bank, has said it may relocate as many as 1,000 traders to the French capital. JPMorgan, the U.S.’s largest bank, plans to move hundreds of London-based bankers to Dublin, Frankfurt and Luxembourg “in the short term,” Daniel Pinto, head of its investment bank, said in May. [...]

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