JP Morgan is quietly unwinding part of its post-Brexit Parisian build-up, shifting a clutch of trading roles back to London in what insiders describe as a recalibration rather than a retreat from the Continent.
The Wall Street giant, which moved aggressively to bulk up its French operations after Britain’s departure from the European Union, has concluded that it overshot when estimating how many EU-based staff it would need to satisfy the bloc’s regulators. A handful of traders are now packing their bags for the City, with the bank citing a combination of evolving role requirements, regulatory clarity and, tellingly, personal tax considerations among bankers themselves. Bloomberg was first to report the move.
“Paris is the home of JP Morgan’s EU sales and trading team, and we are committed to our sizeable operations on the Continent for the long term,” a spokesperson for the bank insisted, in language designed to soothe the Élysée as much as the markets.
Britain’s exit from the EU triggered one of the most disruptive structural overhauls global banking has seen in a generation. Lenders were forced to redistribute assets, capital and personnel across jurisdictions to keep client access alive and regulators on side. JP Morgan was among the most enthusiastic movers, transplanting hundreds of bankers across the Channel and turning Paris into a genuine European trading hub.
The strategy paid handsome dividends, at least diplomatically. Chief executive Jamie Dimon, widely regarded as the world’s most influential banker, was awarded France’s Légion d’Honneur in recognition of the bank’s contribution to lifting the French capital’s status in international finance. By the back end of last year, JP Morgan had roughly 1,000 staff in France, with 650 of them on the markets side.
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