“THIS is our biggest asset!” gushes Eric Menges, the chief executive of the FrankfurtRheinMain promotional body, whirling his arm. The views from his panoramic office are impressive: Frankfurt’s skyscrapers and cranes to the east, its sprawling international airport to the south, the thick forests of Hesse and the vineyards and villages of the Taunus mountains, where Mr Menges lives, to the north and west. “For a 9am flight I can get up at 7am,” he boasts, as the shadow of an intercontinental airliner flickers over the tops of the pines. From this office he hopes to reinvent continental Europe’s financial centre, already home of the European Central Bank.
Brexit helps. Of the banking jobs that have left London since June 2016, more have gone to Frankfurt than anywhere else. After a recent visit Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, tweeted provocatively: “Great meetings, great weather, really enjoyed it. Good, because I’ll be spending a lot more time there.” In the last month alone Deutsche Bank announced the…Continue reading
Source: The Economist – Europe