Paris beats London for hiring, says top Wall Street banker
AN EXECUTIVE at one of Wall Street’s biggest banks has said it is easier to hire in Paris than London in comments likely to fuel concern about Britain’s competitiveness.
Fabio Lisanti, head of Citigroup’s European trading business, which excludes the UK, is overseeing the creation of a new trading floor and the near-doubling of his workforce in the French capital.
Citigroup is taking on an extra floor in its office near the Arc de Triomphe, allowing its headcount to rise from about 130 today to 250 in the coming years.
Mr Lisanti said that Citigroup had been able to “hire talent in Paris that we would never have been able to attract in London”.
He told Bloomberg: “London remains the main trading hub for us. But we have and will move certain risk management and risk books in Europe.”
His comments will set alarm bells ringing in the City and in Whitehall, as the French government continues to promote Paris as a rival financial centre to London.