French capital is gaining momentum as a financial hub, but it still lags behind London in size
Embarking on a career in finance at a Wall Street bank in Paris might once have been regarded as a consolation prize for those who had failed to find a job in New York, London or Hong Kong.
Saverio Michienzi-Rowedder, a sales and trading trainee at Citigroup’s offices in the French capital’s upscale 8th arrondissement, disagrees. “People have noticed Paris is not just a backwater office,” said the 22-year-old management graduate on the bank’s newly established programme in the city, adding that several Citi colleagues were now seeking transfers.
While the testimony will cheer French president Emmanuel Macron, who has championed the city’s ambitions to establish itself as the EU’s top financial centre after Brexit, there is more concrete evidence that the pull of Paris is growing. Seven years since Brexit unleashed a fight for a share of the sales and trading businesses that banks had to shift to the continent to serve European clients, Paris has emerged as a winner as far as jobs go. “Today juniors who join us think ‘I can start in Paris and build a career there’,” said Thierry Sancier, one of the co-heads of Goldman Sachs’s office by the Arc de Triomphe. “In the ’90s, it was good luck to you.”
Bankers say brasseries, international schools and the ability to live close to their downtown headquarters add to the city’s draw. The Arc de Triomphe in the foreground with Paris’s business district in the distance Since Brexit, Paris has sought to establish itself as the EU’s top financial centre
Paris was benefiting from a “winner takes all” effect, said Ferdinand Petra, associate professor of finance at HEC Paris business school. “As soon as you start getting some people others tend to think maybe we should go there too.” Petra pointed out that despite the strides the city had made, it still had a long way to go to challenge the world’s established financial centres. “It’s hard to see London fading and Paris replacing it,” he added. But for now Paris has momentum. After transferring a combined total of at least 1,600 staff to the city, Wall Street’s biggest banks are set to expand their teams there by at least another 420 people over the next two years, according to a tally of plans at Goldman, JPMorgan, Citi, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America. ...
more at FT
© FT plc
Key
Hover over the blue highlighted
text to view the acronym meaning
Hover
over these icons for more information
Comments:
No Comments for this Article