JPMorgan moved some traders to Paris and now, it seems, it is moving some back again.

đŸ’„Follow us on WhatsApp for news alerts.đŸ’„

Bloomberg reported today that the US bank is relocating a “handful” of roles back from Paris to London, particularly in its rates trading team. The US bank reportedly over-estimated the number of staff it would need in Paris to comply with EU rules, and its traders themselves wanted to return.

JPMorgan declined to comment for this article, but one senior trader at the bank told us the relocations to London are nothing new and have been occurring for some time. “It’s been a slow transition to be honest,” he says. “A lot of people didn’t want to stay in Paris. They’ve moved back slowly over the years.”

Quite how many people have moved back to London is a source of dispute. JPMorgan is understood to have 1,000 people currently located in its Paris offices, up from 250 around the time of Brexit. A new 16,000 square foot office is due to open at 37 Place du Marché Saint-Honoré next year, and JPMorgan has said its sales and trading teams will be among the first to move in. 

However, some of JPMorgan’s Paris trading teams are thought to have leaked a lot of traders to London with the result that they’re now skewed towards sales. One senior trader tells us JPMorgan isn’t alone in this. “In many cases, the traders in Paris are just placebos. All the real risk is taken in London,” he claims. In the early days of Brexit, EU regulators warned banks against operating “letterbox operations” in Paris and Frankfurt while risk was directed back to London using so-called mirror trades. Now they seem less bothered. 

Bloomberg says JPMorgan’s traders are leaving Paris in part for tax reasons. As we reported in March, the tax advantages offered by France’s “inpatriates” tax regime last only eight years. For many traders who moved after Brexit, those years are nearly up.

While traders in Paris are moving back to London, JPMorgan is also hiring French traders from rival banks in the City. Last month, for example, Guillaume Bioche, the head of government bonds algo trading at BNP Paribas, joined JPMorgan’s London rates electronic trading team. Bioche is, clearly, French.

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, Whatsapp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Signal: sarahbutcher.22  Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com. 

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: comments are moderated intermittently by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You must take sole responsibility for comments you post on this site. We will take reasonable steps to weed out anything that we consider to be offensive or inappropriate
Â