Banking 'giants' reported 'stepping up' pre-Brexit Frankfurt hiring

Such US banking giants as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley “are on a hiring drive in Frankfurt”, as the “race to establish new headquarters inside the European Union in time for Brexit” intensifies, Bloomberg reported today. 

The German city of Frankfurt is one of a handful of jurisdictions that are looking to take advantage of the UK’s pending departure from the European Union, which is seen as making London less desireable for cross-border financial services within the EU.

Although the subject of banks and other businesses moving to other cities in Europe from London has been rumbling on since even before the referendum on the UK’s continued EU presence took place in 2016, in Frankfurt at least, it has now reached the point where Wall Street’s biggest names “have recently started advertising for scores of staff, ranging from risk managers to compliance officers and information-technology specialists”, Bloomberg said, citing recent internet jobs listings.

These companies need their offices to be up and running by April 2019, it reported headhunters and people familiar with their firm’s hiring plans as saying.

Where possible, these banks would rather fill as many positions as they can on the ground in Frankfurt, in order to limit the disruption caused by relocating London-based employees and their families, the Bloomberg report continued.

“With only about 14 months to go until Britain formally departs the EU, banks have reached what one executive called the point of no return, and have decided they need to trigger their contingency plans,” the report noted.

According to a Frankfurt promotional organisation, Frankfurt Main Finance, as many as 10,000 new jobs may be created in the German city in the next few years, while in the UK, recent data from Morgan McKinley shows job openings in London’s finance industry fell 52% in December, the most in three years, Bloomberg noted.

In September, Frankfurt was ranked eleventh on the Z/Yen Group’s twice-yearly Global Financial Centres Index, up 12 places from the previous GFCI, published six months prior to that. The GFCI ranking is compiled from an online survey of financial executives around the world.

To read the report about the banking hiring boom in Frankfurt on the Bloomberg website, click here.