French PM details bid to attract post-Brexit finance

 French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Friday laid out a raft of measures aimed at boosting Paris's attractiveness to high finance to cash in on Britain's exit from the European Union.

Among them are scrapping a plan to widen a current 0.3 percent tax on financial transactions, eliminating the top income tax bracket, and keeping bonuses out of the calculation of severance pay for "risk-takers" such as stockbrokers.

Paris is competing with Dublin, Frankfurt and other centres for an expected shift in finance jobs out of London as a result of Brexit.

In another step aimed at attracting foreign businesses, the Paris area is to open three more international high schools by 2022.

Philippe also announced that work had begun to establish an international tribunal in Paris to handle financial cases in English.

Most international financial contracts are written in English and make reference to British law.

Several banks, especially Asian institutions, have recently announced that they would move European headquarters from London to Frankfurt in response to Brexit.

Bloomberg News said Thursday it would move investment banking activities from London to its Frankfurt headquarters.

With Britain at risk of losing the "passporting rights" financial firms use to deal with clients in the rest of the European Union when it leaves, employees in direct contact with customers may need to be based on EU territory in future.

Other jobs will need to move to deal with business that must be booked in the European Union, as will risk management workers, who must be based in the EU to satisfy banking supervisors' requirements.

French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to relax France's rigid labour laws to free its economy from red tape and excessive taxation.

Source: AFP