Barclays in Paris nabs electronic trader from HSBC in Düsseldorf
If you’re working at a British bank in Germany, you might have your eye on… Working at a British bank in France. Especially if you’re a trader.
Felix Lorenz is that trader. Lorenz spent just shy of six years with HSBC in Düsseldorf, where he was named head of electronic trading in continental Europe less than four years after completing his internship as a working student. He joined Barclays, in Paris, as an electronic sales trader at the start of last month.
Barclays also added Edouard Laharrague to its Paris presence, a global equities sales trader, back in June. Laharrague joined from BMO Capital Markets, the investment banking subsidiary of the Canadian Bank of Montreal.
Lorenz choosing a move to Paris over staying in Germany isn’t really that surprising. The French capital is (probably) the top destination on the European mainland for traders, with a number of firms including Morgan Stanley and some big hedge funds adding to their presence in the city. It also pays a lot more, for one (Germany’s top financiers are actually lagging behind Italy and Spain’s, too), and it’s also harder to lose your job. To top it all off, despite a pretty abysmal year for the world and the economy, Paris’ bankers and traders actually expected a bonus increase at the end of 2022.
Barclays is planning on adding some 200 people to its Paris team by 2025/2026, Bloomberg reported, nearly doubling its footprint in the city. It’s also weighing up options to move its entire European headquarters to the city, (partly) on account of the huge new building on the Avenue Hoche it’ll be moving into at the end of the year.
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