Yahoo Finance Barclays (BCS) to Add Traders in Paris as Post-Brexit Measure
Another bank to increase its headcount in Paris post Brexit is Barclays PLC BCS. The British lender has been planning to hire 200 traders in the French capital. The news was reported by Bloomberg.
Francesco Ceccato, the chief executive of Barclays Europe, said that the bank could generate enough business in Paris. Hence, BCS, which currently employs 300 people in Paris, has planned to add 200 more staff by 2025-2026.
After Britain’s exit from the European Union (“EU”), an increasing number of financial institutions have been moving their key operations to France. Paris has grown to become a post-Brexit trading hub, replacing London.
Financial firms in the United States, such as Morgan Stanley MS, Goldman Sachs GS and Bank of America BAC, are beefing up their presence in the French capital.
Earlier this month, BofA said that it planned to keep increasing its presence in Paris even after staff numbers rose more than eight-fold in four years.
MS has planned to increase staff in Paris by 200 by the end of 2025. With this rise, Morgan Stanley’s total headcount in France will reach 500.
The global markets team at Goldman Sachs more than doubled in the last two years. The bank sees the numbers increasing further.
Barclays’ decision to increase staff in Paris also comes after the European Central Bank (“ECB”) told lenders that they must base their staff in the EU if they were conducting significant trading activity on the continent post Brexit.
After completing a lengthy investigation into whether financial institutions were trying to dodge the post-Brexit regulation, the ECB identified 56 groups of traders who should be doing their business from within the EU.
Barclays, which employs more than 40,000 staff in the U.K., has nearly 1,800 people across 10 countries in the EU. Its Paris operation is now nearly as large as its Dublin office.
Amid expansion plans in France, Barclays wants to move into a larger Paris office next year near the Arc de Triomphe.
Over the past six months, shares of BCS have gained 4.5% compared with the industry’s rise of 6.1%.
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Currently, Barclays carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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