Brexit will not be a “catastrophe” for the City, according to a former French banker charged by the French Government with persuading banks to relocate to Paris.
Financial companies have warned that they will have to move thousands of jobs to cities in the European Union after Britain leaves the European Union next year.
But Christian Noyer, a former Bank of France governor, told the BBC that concerns about the impact on the City of Brexit had been overblown.
Mr Noyer was hired in 2016 by the French government to defend the country’s financial interests in the Brexit negotiations.
He told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme: “Twenty years ago London was already the first financial centre and Paris was much more important.
“Many banks had concentrated their forces in London which had tens or sometimes hundreds of staff in Paris before.
“So if that goes back to where we were 20 years ago it is not a catastrophe for the City.”
The comments were welcomed by Lord Llewellyn, Britain’s ambassador to France, who said it showed that it was in the both countries’ interests to strike a good Brexit deal.
Mr Noyer ran the Bank of France from 2003 to 2015.
He has held hundreds of meetings with bankers in London, New York and elsewhere to drum up business for the French financial capital.
Earlier this week Deutsche Bank said it expects far fewer staff than some had expected to move from London to the continent following Britain’s departure from the European Union.
A senior Deutsche Bank official said last year that up to 4,000 jobs might be affected.
However Stefan Hoops, the head of Deutsche Bank’s capital market division in Germany told journalists: “Not thousands will move from London, but rather hundreds.”
While Deutsche Bank is headquartered in Frankfurt, it has large operations in Britain, where 8,600 of its staff are based.
Article from ‘The Telegraph’
