JPMorgan to acquire former BNP building in central Paris

Bloomberg

JPMorgan Chase & Co is buying the former BNP Paribas SA offices in central Paris with space to house as many as 450 employees, as banks seek to bolster their footprint in the European Union after Brexit.
JPMorgan, which currently has 260 employees in the French capital, is taking over the seven-storey building a short walk from the Louvre museum, it said without disclosing a price. The offices are set to open by the end of the year and the company plans to link them directly to its existing operations in the adjacent building.
Global banks are jockeying to maintain access to the European Union as prime minister Boris Johnson presses an agenda that may lead to a so-called hard Brexit and force businesses to serve clients from operations physically on the continent. JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon a year ago described that possible result as a “disaster.”
“Following numerous government reforms and with the intrinsic quality of the infrastru
cture in Paris, there is no better time to be investing here and for more of our staff to make it their home,” said Kyril Courboin, head of JPMorgan’s French business.
Barclays Plc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Bank of America Corp are among those preparing for the worst-case Brexit scenario by building offices in cities including Dublin, Paris and Frankfurt over the last three years. However, the world’s biggest investment banks have so far moved few executives and very little trading business out of the UK JPMorgan has about 17,000 employees in the UK and 2,000 in the rest of Europe, a spokesman said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has taken a tough stance toward Britain, making clear that “all will change” in the City of London’s relationship with the EU. Britain is set to officially withdraw from the EU by Jan. 31. Financial firms have been lobbying for rules that still allow them to serve clients in Europe from their London operations.
The JPMorgan office purchase was announced on the eve of an event, called “Choose France” and hosted by President Emmanuel Macron, for almost 150 foreign and French chief executives at the Versailles Palace. The new office may host operations of the bank’s sales and trading divisions, it said.