U.S. banks' Brexit jobs are already coming to Frankfurt

It has begun: U.S. investment banks are advertising all sorts of jobs in Frankfurt. However, they're mostly for the middle rather than the front office. 

Morgan Stanley is advertising 19 vacancies in Frankfurt. JP Morgan is advertising 15. Goldman Sachs is advertising nine, and Citi is advertising seven - not including internships and graduate positions.

Most of the advertisements are for regulatory, compliance and legal positions as banks seek to establish new legal entities in Germany.  J.P. Morgan, for example, is looking for a regulatory reporting associate to help deal with Brexit-related tasks, plus a "legal entity risk vice president." Goldman Sachs is looking for a "regulatory controller," a "regulatory affairs analyst," and a VP to work on German operational risk in fixed income currencies and commodities trading (until now undertaken in London).  Morgan Stanley has six risk vacancies in Frankfurt, three of which are at executive director level.

The vacancies suggest U.S. banks are starting 2018 by putting the foundations in place for their expansion in Frankfurt ahead of Brexit. As we reported yesterday,  J.P. Morgan now has a website extolling the virtues of Frankfurt and highlighting the availability of sausages in the German city. Goldman Sachs, Citi, Morgan Stanley, and J.P. Morgan have all indicated that they will have trading operations in Frankfurt after Brexit.

Martin Hellmich, Professor at the Frankfurt School for Finance & Management, says the raft of risk and regulatory jobs is entirely predictable and that roles in these areas would likely increase irrespective of Brexit thanks to the amendment to the Minimum Requirements for Risk Management (MaRisk) of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). This means banks need to provide risk management data electronically, which should in turn create more IT jobs.

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