French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire is under no illusions as to the reasons behind Jamie Dimon’s latest push into Paris, where JPMorgan Chase & Co. has just cut the ribbon on the new headquarters for its continental trading hub. While citing President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to support financial services in France, Le Maire’s most emphatic praise was for the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union five years ago: “Thank you...Brexit.”
While JPMorgan’s French presence goes back centuries, its new six-floor trading center is inseparable from Brexit shenanigans. London remains Europe’s biggest financial center and the world’s second-biggest, according to research firm New Financial. But leaving the European Union has chipped away at the City’s network effects, allowing multiple hubs to coexist from Paris and Frankfurt to Amsterdam.
