City firms have drawn up plans to move 4,000 jobs from London to Paris after Brexit, French officials claimed today.
Despite several banks publicly scaling back re-locations, Arnaud de Bresson, the general delegate of Paris Europlace, which promotes Paris as a financial centre, said major moves would still take place.
He claimed Brexit would leave London as a smaller – if still important – financial centre compared to its European rivals.
Arnaud de Bresson, the general delegate of Paris Europlace, which promotes Paris as a financial centre, has claimed 4,000 jobs are to set to move from London to Paris
Mr de Bresson said he hoped for 10,000 job transfers by the time Brexit actually takes place in March 2019.
He said: ‘London will still be an important financial centre but it will be a little bit reduced in size.’
His words were backed by Ross McInnes, the Oxford-educated, Franco-Australian chairman of Safran, the aerospace giant, who is also the Paris region’s economic ambassador.
He told the Times: ‘Brexit is like a British breakfast. You can have your eggs hard or soft, but so far it looks to me like it’s scrambled. That doesn’t help London.’
In Paris, on the other hand, the outlook was ‘hugely positive’ following the election of President Macron and the acceleration of pro-business reforms designed in part to attract financial institutions from Britain, Mr McInnes said.
Last month, HSBC became the latest bank to launch a climb down on threats to move jobs out of London and into Europe after Brexit.
HSBC last month became the latest bank to launch a climb down on threats to move jobs out of London and into Europe after Brexit
After posting strong financial results the bank admitted it ‘may’ move fewer than the 1,000 jobs forecast.
The announcement came just days after UBS also pared down plans to move banking jobs to Europe amid Brexit uncertainty.
There is particular concern about ‘passporting’ rights that would allow euros to be traded outside of the European Union.
Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein took to Twitter to detail a recent trip to Frankfurt where the US bank is planning to relocate some of its own business
HSBC’s finance director Iain Mackay said today: ‘It may be less than 1,000 employees, but it’s up to 1,000.’
Previous comments from senior HSBC executives had emphasised the number of jobs to move would be 1,000.
Mackay said the bank had booked $12 million in costs for the third quarter in relation to Brexit, mostly spent on legal advice regarding contingency planning.
HSBC still expects to spend $200-$300 million in total on Brexit relocation costs, he said.
In a less positive signal, Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein took to Twitter to detail a recent trip to Frankfurt where the US bank is planning to relocate some of its own business.
He said: ‘Just left Frankfurt. Great meetings, great weather, really enjoyed it. Good, because I’ll be spending a lot more time there.’
Reports have emerged that the group – which employs around 6,500 people in the UK – had signed a contract to lease eight floors of a skyscraper in the city, capable of holding 800 staff.