Bank of America gets ready to move London jobs to Paris

Bank of America is pressing ahead with moving some of its investment bank to Paris to prepare for Brexit by appointing three senior managers who will move there in 2019.

Sanaz Zaimi, the bank’s head of fixed income, currencies and commodities sales will move to the French capital to head the expanded operation in he country, the Financial Times reported.

Sorbonne-educated Zaimi will be joined by Vanessa Holtz, co-head of EMEA G10 foreign exchange trading, and Othmane Kabbaj, head of EMEA emerging markets FICC sales. They were both educated in France and will take on additional roles in Paris.

Bank of America has chosen Paris as its main alternative base to London for investment banking and is refurbishing an office in the centre of the city that is likely to house hundreds of sales and trading staff that now sit in London. France has been trying to woo financial services companies to move their operations to Paris after Brexit.

A senior executive told the FT that Bank of America seemed determined to move faster than US rivals in enacting post-Brexit plans despite employees’ reluctance to move.

In a memo seen by the FT the bank’s chief operating officer Tom Montag said: "Further EU leadership appointments will be announced in due course."

On 20 June, Mark Boleat, the former chair of the City of London Corporation, said UK political wrangling over Brexit had become irrelevant to international banks moving jobs to EU countries in preparation for Brexit.