BofA Plans to Move About 200 Trading Staff to Paris, Frankfurt

(Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp. will initially move about 200 sales and trading staff to Paris and Frankfurt as part of its Brexit plan, Chief Operating Officer Tom Montag said.

Montag, speaking at conference in New York on Tuesday, said the bank needs to have people in place before Brexit officially occurs in 2019. He added that the political uncertainty could force the lender to change course.

“You want to have it right from day one,” Montag said. “Who knows what happens on this, but that’s what our plan is now, and we feel pretty comfortable with it.”

The moves should help Bank of America better compete with their European rivals, Montag said, while noting that many of those banks are being more aggressive of late in their efforts to attract talent and clients.

“They’re always formidable competitors,” Montag said. “We think we’ll better in Europe a little bit after Brexit because we’re going to be more local.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Laura J. Keller in New York at lkeller22@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Larry DiTore

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