The entrance to Morgan Stanley’s office in Paris, which had been on track to become Europe’s post-Brexit financial center.
Photographer: Cyril Marcilhacy/BloombergPeak Paris? Global Banks Put Their French Hiring Plans on Ice
Rising taxes, slowing deals, and political volatility are weighing on the French capital’s ambitions to become Europe’s preeminent financial center.
In his office in the heart of the upmarket 8th Arrondissement of Paris, attorney in labor law Bruno Gambillo has been receiving a steady stream of traders, investment bankers and analysts. Most of them are foreigners, laid off from international banks and investment funds and looking for help navigating France’s arcane employment rules. Gambillo gets a 10% success fee if he’s able to negotiate a bigger severance.
“Americans, English, Swiss, or Germans are now knocking on my door,” said Gambillo, who for the past three decades has defended workers after they’ve been fired or made redundant, from factory staff to insurance executives. “In recent months, some major foreign financial companies in Paris no longer have the same discomfort as before to proceed with individual or economic layoffs.”