Since Brexit, many banks have moved from the city to Frankfurt.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
While numerous banks had recently relocated jobs from London to Frankfurt in response to Brexit, Berenberg is currently going in exactly the opposite direction in one area. The Hamburger Bank is reorganizing its corporate finance business in continental Europe. Instead of distributing it to Frankfurt, Paris and Brussels as before, it is to be controlled centrally from London in future.
“We will move the continental Europe corporate finance unit to London,” Fabian de Smet, head of investment banking in the region, told Bloomberg. “We are moving from a generalist, local approach to a sector-oriented, centralized approach.” After Berenberg had mainly looked after small companies in this area for a long time, mid-caps had recently also come into focus, for which a local approach was less important is important.
According to de Smet, Berenberg’s corporate finance team in London will grow from the current 10 employees to around 20 to 25 people. The overall size of the team does not change.
“We are offering affected employees to move to London or find other roles at Berenberg at their current location,” said de Smet. “Some colleagues have already agreed to move. Above all, there are still vacancies for the healthcare and finance sectors.” Financial News was the first to report on the plans to move.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
Berenberg, the second-oldest bank in the world after Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, had already recruited more staff at its London location last year. The number of employees there increased from 433 to 490. In Frankfurt, the number of employees also increased, but not nearly as much.
Banks that continue to strengthen in Frankfurt include JPMorgan Chase & Co. The workforce in Germany is expected to grow by up to a quarter this year, which should take the number of employees in Frankfurt to around 700, Germany said. Boss Stefan Povaly recently.
More: Reversal in tech stocks – What speaks for a rotation from value to growth