JPMorgan's Brexit Plan Rollout Sees its European Staff Increase
JPMorgan has nearly quadrupled the number of employees in its European centre to over 1,300 as part of its Brexit plans. The US investment bank has been relocating workers and expanding its footprint in France and Germany.
According to newly released reports, JPMorgan SE, the entity that houses its European activities, had 1,287 workers at the end of 2021. As the bank combined some of its legal entities across the continent, the number increased from 626 a year ago.
The most significant increase was in Paris, where worker numbers grew from 78 to 379 in 2021. Last July, JPMorgan announced the opening of its new trading hub in Paris, along with plans to increase its headcount to roughly 800 people by the end of the year.
Despite hiring more people on the continent, the number of people working for JPMorgan's European business in London has more than doubled to 139. The unit's pay costs soared to €368.5 million, up 154 per cent from the previous year.
According to the study, employee turnover at JPMorgan SE surged to 13% last year, up from roughly 5% in 2020.
Meanwhile, the bank's unit produced a profit of €774 million last year, up from €139.9 million the year before.
Banks have invested millions in their Brexit plans, but regulators are pressuring them to expand their footprint on the continent even more. The European Central Bank's so-called desk-mapping examination, which looked at how many employees banks had relocated from London to the continent, found that many were still overly reliant on their British businesses.
According to a survey released in March by Big Four accounting company EY, little over 7,000 jobs have been transferred from London to the continent since the Brexit vote in 2016. This figure is far lower than the 40,000 expected by consultants Oliver Wyman in the aftermath of the referendum, as well as the 100,000 job losses forecast by a PwC analysis commissioned by advocacy group CityUK in 2016.
Source: fnlondon
