Bank of America is moving more senior jobs to its new Paris office, including the heads of emerging markets, foreign Exchange , and FICC sales, in what is expected to be one of the biggest such shifts from the City ahead of Brexit.
Bank of America’s COO Tom Montag said in a staff memo, seen by Reuters that Sanaz Zaimi, the sole head of fixed income, currency and commodity (FICC) sales would move to the European Union and Paris in particular. She will be joined by Vanessa Holtz, head of global G10 foreign exchange trading and co-head of EMEA G10 FX trading, as well as Othmane Kabbaj, head of EMEA emerging markets FICC sales.
The decision by Bank of America comes just days after BofA moved forward with its plans to relocate 400 jobs in markets, trading, sales and fixed income teams. In addition, other global lenders have already said that they will begin first waves of moves from London early next year.
The French capital, home to several EU entities, has emerged as one of the favored destinations for many global financial institutions that will have to be relocated to new hubs inside the European Union after Brexit .
The moves by Bank of America and other global firms come despite the Conservative party’s loss of a majority in the 2017 snap elections, which made it more likely that Theresa May will seek a softer Brexit deal that could reduce the impact on the UK’s financial services industry. But after May ruled out retaining passporting rights, global banks are no longer willing to wait for clarity on their post-Brexit future.
Bank of America has been considering the move for months as the investment bank was taking steps to minimize disruption to its clients. However, Paris wasn’t the only financial hub in the sights of the US banking giant, as the firm was evaluating other locations too, including in Frankfurt and Dublin.
