(Bloomberg) -- Frankfurt, Germany's financial center and home to the European Central Bank, has good chances to edge out competitors such as Paris and Dublin in luring banking business from London after the Brexit vote, according to the regional state leader.
“We're offering a lot, we're consulting a lot,” Hesse state premier Volker Bouffier said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Tuesday. “I was just in New York with all the big American banks -- we said: ‘Here you have a good location.'”
Bouffier, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, said his state government is “very active” in pitching Germany's fifth-largest city to potential newcomers that want to be inside the European Union once the U.K. leaves. “I think we have a big chance.”
The U.K.'s impending exit from the EU has cast a spotlight on potential locations that could win bank business should Brexit trigger an exodus from London. Financial firms' so-called passporting rights that allow them to do business throughout the EU are a concern for the financial industry as the U.K. government approaches Brexit negotiations next year.
Banks' need to have a strong presence within the 19-member euro-area would play to Frankfurt's advantage, considering the presence of the ECB, the Bundesbank and BaFin, Germany's financial regulator, Bouffier said. A strong economy and political stability would factor into decisions, too, he said.
“Paris is fascinating and Dublin is beautiful too,” Bouffier said during a CDU convention in Essen, Germany. “We have the biggest collection of competence, on experience and knowledge of what goes on in banking.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Patrick Donahue in Essen, Germany at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net, Matthew Miller in Essen, Germany at mtmiller@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net, Tony Czuczka, Paul Abelsky
Essential Business Intelligence, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice, Daily Fuel, Gold and Silver Prices and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
