UAE financial institutions in Paris enhance city’s prestige: Minister
Le Maire told reporters that the new jobs from the US bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Nigeria’s Zenith Bank highlighted Paris’ role as a leading financial hub within Europe
Morgan Stanley will open a new European office in Paris that will create 100 more jobs, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday, as Paris aims to burnish its credentials as a major European finance centre.
The closely watched Z/yen survey of global financial centres, published in March, put New York as the world’s top financial hub with London in second place. It also ranked Frankfurt above Paris.
But Le Maire told reporters that the new jobs from the US bank, and from First Abu Dhabi Bank and Nigeria’s Zenith Bank highlighted Paris’ role as a leading financial hub within Europe.
Morgan Stanley had said last year that it planned to increase its overall Paris headcount to 500 by 2025. First Abu Dhabi Bank already has an office in Paris while Zenith Bank had previously signed a deal with France to set up a subsidiary in the country this year.
“The fact that we now have the United Arab Emirates and Nigeria, which are putting their financial institutions in Paris, is an excellent sign in terms of the financial attractions of Paris and our capacity to be the biggest financial centre in Europe,” Le Maire said.
The announcement of Morgan Stanley’s “European campus” in Paris comes as President Emmanuel Macron prepares to launch the annual ‘Choose France’ summit, designed to woo big businesses and foreign investors to France.
As part of this event, Le Maire is due to host meetings on Monday with top executives including JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick and Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan.
Le Maire is also due to meet Christophe Fouquet, the French head of Dutch semiconductor chipmaker ASML.
France secured on Sunday new jobs and investments with Internet giant Amazon, healthcare company Pfizer and Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley, as the country prepared to host a key foreign investment summit.
President Emmanuel Macron kicks off the annual ‘Choose France’ event, aimed at winning big business from overseas, on Monday. The 2023 edition raised 13 billion euros ($14 billion) of foreign investment.
The French presidency said on Sunday that Amazon would announce an extra 1.2 billion euro investment in France which could create 3,000 new jobs, while healthcare companies Pfizer and Astrazeneca announced new investments worth a total of nearly $1 billion.
Macron wants to burnish Paris’ role as a top European business capital. The French economy, the euro zone’s second largest, faces pressure over its budget deficit, while its first-quarter growth was just 0.2 percent.
COMPETITION FROM US, CHINA: Paris has traditionally lagged New York and London as a global financial hub, with the closely watched Z/yen survey published in March ranking New York as the world’s top financial centre, with London in second place.
Le Maire said France and the European Union as a whole still had to do more against competition from China and the U.S., with French oil major Totalenergies saying last month that it was looking at having its primary stock market listing in New York.
At an EU meeting in Brussels this week, Le Maire said he would reaffirm the need for a capital markets union to facilitate investments in new areas of the economy such as renewable energy and artificial intelligence.
“Europe needs money. If not, it will continue to lose out in terms of productivity to the United States and China.”
Le Maire added that as part of the ‘Choose France’ event, he would host meetings on Monday with the CEOS of Jpmorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America , among others.
“These roundtables will give us an opportunity to once again reach out to the big financial investors so they can continue to set up sites in Paris and finance the major industrial and economic projects on which we are working with the President,” said Le Maire. ($1 = 0.9286 euros) ( US e-commerce giant Amazon will invest more than 1.2 billion euros in France, creating more than 3,000 jobs, French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said on Sunday.
The money will help develop Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) cloud infrastructure, mainly generative artificial intelligence, and the logistical infrastructure of its parcel delivery service, a statement added.
The statement came on the eve of the seventh Choose France Summit, the aim of which is to attract foreign investors to the country. Macron will host it at the Chateau of Versailles near Paris.
Amazon did not respond to approaches by AFP on Sunday, having recently said it did not want to make any comment ahead of a possible announcement that would be made at the event.
The US company has already announced the creation of 2,000 new jobs in France in 2024, which would bring its staff workforce in the country up to 24,000 by the end of the year, mainly in its logistics centres.