London is currently Europe’s leading financial centre but the French authorities dream of seeing Paris in the lead. However, it remains to be seen if the City will lose access to European markets after the UK-EU negotiations this year.
French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said this week that “Paris [was] going to become the leading financial centre” in Europe, which appears more of a statement of intent rather than fact.
Financial services account for about 7% of the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) and are concentrated mainly in London, where the sector directly employs 250,000 people.
The French capital, on the other hand, has 180,000 employees in the financial sector, according to figures provided by Paris Europlace, the organisation that promotes the financial sector in Paris.
Arnaud de Bresson, the organisation’s managing director, points out that as a financial hub, Paris is at the top of the now EU-27 bloc, well ahead of Frankfurt, which boasts 70,000 financial sector workers, or the 30,000 workers in Dublin or Luxembourg.
In Europe, Paris is not only a leader in terms of market capitalisation but also regarding asset management, derivatives and the insurance market. [...]
Because of Brexit, which became official on 31 January, between 80 and 100 companies in London’s financial sector have decided to relocate around 4,000 direct jobs to Paris, and this process “is likely to accelerate”, de Bresson announced.[...]
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