5 days ago
US banks have added 11K jobs in EU since Brexit
The world's top five investment banks have added nearly 11,000 employees to their European Union hubs since Brexit. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JPMorgan, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley have added thousands of dealmakers, traders and support staff to the hubs they set up in the EU post Brexit, according to people familiar with the matter and analysis of publicly available data.
It is now five years since the UK departed the EU and investment banks have been bulking up the cities including Frankfurt, Milan and Paris. Estimates of the impact of Brexit in the financial district of London (known as the 'City') have varied widely, with EY's last Brexit tracker in 2022 putting the number of jobs that have moved across at 7,000.
'Despite this, both at the time and now five years on, London remains Europe's leading financial hub', said Andrew Pilgrim, UK financial services government leader at EY.
The former Lord mayor of the City of London, Michael Mainelli, who leads consultancy Z/Yen, estimates that 40,000 financial services roles have moved from London to the EU because of Brexit.
Meanwhile, the number of people employed in the City has grown since the 2016 Brexit referendum by around 130,000 to reach 678,000 at the end of last year.
'The City of London has been growing and continues to do so', he said. 'I remain bullish on London, but proportionately it is likely to have done better if it wasn't for Brexit'.
JPMorgan Europe SE, the US bank's post-Brexit hub, has grown from 562 employees in the EU in 2020 to 3,570 at the end of 2024. However, the bank now has around 6,000 staff overall in the EU, up from approximately 2,500 before Brexit.
Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE, which houses some of its EU functions, has grown from 556 employees five years ago to 1,182 at the end of 2024. Bank of America's Frankfurt EU hub has 2,549 employees, up from 2,349 in 2021.
Morgan Stanley's main hub has increased from 293 people to 781 over the same period. However, it had 610 employees across the bloc in 2020, a number that grew to 1,075 in 2023 — the latest available numbers.
Citibank Europe PLC — Citigroup's Dublin headquartered EU entity — has grown by around 6,400 employees over the past five years to reach a headcount of 16,647.
Mainelli said that while some claim that the impact of Brexit on the City has been relatively minimal, it has still had a negative effect.
'It's like running into a brick wall, getting up and then saying the injuries aren't too bad — it's still a stupid thing to do', he said.
Paris has arguably been the biggest beneficiary of Brexit's exodus of talent from London.
While most investment banks chose Frankfurt to house new legal entities, Wall Street firms have largely moved trading floors to the French capital.
JPMorgan's Paris headcount has jumped from 78 in 2020 to 811 at the end of 2024 and the bank will move into a new office that can house 1,000 people this year. At Bank of America, staff numbers have risen from 70 to 700 over the past five years in the French city.
But high end jobs elsewhere in the banking sector have also gravitated to the EU. Morgan Stanley has expanded its presence in Frankfurt and Milan; and has also opened new offices in Copenhagen and Munich over the past five years.
Goldman Sachs's post-Brexit strategy has involved transferring key bankers to European cities where important clients are located. Major investment banking sector teams led by partners have been shifting from London to other European cities including Frankfurt and Milan in recent years.
But the surge in jobs on the continent has not always come at the expense of the City of London.
