Paris & London's wealth loss is Dubai's gain

SPRINGTIME IS HERE in Paris. Cafes are bustling, the economy is showing signs of improvement, and a shiny (stair-free) metro expansion is making the 15-minute city even more accessible.

- Lionel Laurent Bloomberg

Yet there's also the faintly audible sound of wealth on the move: Two locals inform me of plans to leave, one to Dubai and the other to Switzerland.

In a similar vein to London's fleeing non-doms and Brexit banking exiles, Paris is going through its own dose of ras-le-bol fiscal—the moment when the proverbial tax straw breaks the camel's back—in President Emmanuel Macron's twilight years. Taxes are going up on big business and the wealthy; Marine Le Pen is the presidential contender to beat in 2027; parliament is gridlocked and still fighting over pension reforms that tore the country apart in 2023. After an extraordinary run for Paris as the euro area's investment-banking hub of choice, with the number of French financiers on seven-figure salaries almost doubling in four years, hiring plans are being put on ice.

What you might call "peak Paris" marks a new phase in the fight for global talent—one in which Europe is on the back foot. Paris won the Brexit battle for corporate and investment bankers thanks to tax incentives and pro-business reforms, JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s France chief Kyril Courboin told a Bloomberg conference last week, pointing to his own firm's expanded French footprint to 950 staff from 230 a decade ago.