Why Frankfurt & Paris may be the best places for banking jobs now
When banking jobs began moving from London to Frankfurt and Paris as a result of Brexit a few years ago, not everyone was happy about it. City headhunters said they were assailed by people who wanted to stay in London, even if it meant changing jobs and working for a different bank. In late 2022, however, staying in London looks like it may have been a mistake.
Responses to the eFinancialCareers year-end expectations and outlook survey revealed that bankers in Paris are unusually optimistic about their bonuses this year. Bankers in both Paris and Frankfurt are unusually unconcerned about their job security for 2023.
Against all odds, bankers in London and New York are moderately optimistic about their bonuses. Bankers in Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Singapore are appropriately pessimistic. But respondents to our survey in Paris are the most optimistic of the lot.
As is ever the case, the optimistic Paris bankers and traders mostly pointed to personal performance as the source of their buoyancy. "I'm a high performer," said one director in macro sales and trading. A managing director at a French trading house said the markets had smiled upon him: "Illiquidity in the credit markets right now means large bid offer spreads therefore bigger margins, plus there's less competition from other banks and brokers currently."
It helps, too, that competition for talent is tight in Paris as US banks, hedge funds and local banks compete for staff. Stephane Rambossen, CEO at search firm Vichy Advisory, says the Paris bonus optimism is unsurprising in the circumstances.
Frankfurt bankers are less bullish about their bonus prospects, but they have another advantage: almost none of them are worried about their job security for 2023. Similarly, only 14% of Paris bankers said they were worried about their jobs. This compared to 28% in London.
"In Paris, jobs are safer," reflected one Barclays associate. An analyst at Credit Agricole in Paris said he's safe because he has a "French contract," as did various others. Similarly, a director at a German asset management firm pointed to his "German contract" as the reason for his lack of angst.
The comparative advantage of being in France and Germany is illustrated in the recent Credit Suisse layoffs. While jobs have been cut in Germany (eg. Bjoern Bluemke, the head of German sales), insiders at CS say the cuts have been far fewer in continental Europe than in London, so far. "A lot of people in Germany are employed under German labour law," says one senior Frankfurt trader. "It makes it much more difficult to rid of people here."
He adds that it's much cheaper to live in Germany, and that even if you are let go, the unemployment system is considerably more generous. "You get €2.5k max support from private insurance plus extra from the state. It’s €3k a month after taxes, which is perfectly fine."
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