Lunchtime Links: Bonjour! French bankers are moving to London, French banks are building here

If you think the 50% income tax rate for top earners in the UK is harsh, spare a thought for those in France who have to pay up to 75%. Conversations have now switched from an exodus of talent from the City (Paris was touted as a contender in 2010) to a sudden surge of French bankers moving to London.

There are already a decent number of French people working in London’s financial sector, around 30,000-40,000 according to some estimates, but Reuters suggests that a lot more will be coming.

Not only are senior financial professionals applying for work here, but more French banks are said to be considering relocating more highly-paid front office staff. SocGen is said to be considering moving more traders and M&A staff to the City, which will be welcome news considering the number of cuts hitting its London operations over the last year or so. BNP Paribas has also been scaling back the number of bankers it employs in the City.

"Many French banks have planned to transfer more operations to London. The tax burden is lighter, and there is more flexibility there. It also makes sense to grow international operations from there," Stephane Rambosson, managing partner of executive search firm Veni Partners told Reuters.

"You're going to be surprised at the number of people who are actually leaving," said a senior M&A banker. "I have close friends who have already gone."

Meanwhile:

50% of Barclays' wealth management employees are senior bankers and it’s willing to shell out for good staff, particularly in Asia (Wall Street Journal)

Eliot Spitzer defends policy that has caused numerous independent research houses, most recently at Goldman Sachs, to shut up shop (Financial Times)

Banks are cutting MDs and relying on juniors to take the strain (Financial News)

Bill Winters is hiring for his boutique real estate asset manager (Financial News)

The CME is expanding into Europe (Financial Times)

Meet the man leading the 'London whale' investigation (Wall Street Journal)

Barclays is still hiring for its investment banking division in Taiwan (Dealbook)

Bankers are now more likely to keep their vices restricted to their private lives (Wall Street Journal)