French bankers are shunning London, and Americans are replacing them
There’s no perfect proxy for Wall Street’s satisfaction with the current presidency. But if there were one good one, it might be the rate at which bankers that are choosing to leave New York – ideally, for London.
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eFinancialCareers' data shows that the number of applications per month to UK financial services jobs from US candidates more than doubled between September 2024 and May 2025. This might be due to the removal of the EU bonus cap, but it might also be due to Donald Trump.
There are signs that Americans are leaving the US. After August 2024, the number of US applicants to UK jobs in our database spiked, more than doubling by November and staying at that high level throughout the next six months.
Americans leaving for the UK are more vocal than those that remain, but the pain points are usually the same. The Telegraph said in May that lawyers had been "inundated" with inquires from US clients about relocating to the UK, with one saying that they came from "a range of backgrounds – people who work in the technology sector, financial services and so on.” The Guardian also observed in May that Americans had been settling in the Cotswolds, including "finance people from the east coast". Locals had reportedly taken to calling the region "the Hamptons of England".
New Yorkers may soon have another reason to flee. The income tax for high-earners proposed by likely next-mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani is causing angst.
Americans are applying to finance jobs at the right time - London's former sources of overseas talent are drying up.
Our data suggests that French applicants per month to jobs in London fell by over 20% between September 2024 and May 2025. This might be because there are opportunities at home. JPMorgan's office in Paris, for example, has gone from 250 to over 1,000 people in less than a decade. Bloomberg noted in March, though, that banks' Paris plans had been put on ice.
Unfortunately for the Americans (and everyone else), there just aren’t a lot of finance jobs in London going around these days. By the end of 2024, the number of jobs available in London’s financial services sector was at an all-time low (barring a single quarter during the pandemic).
Foreign financiers will also increasingly be more limited by their visas. As we noted last month, professionals in London will sees their five-year waits to achieve settled status increased to ten years, if a new government white paper is followed through on. “This whole exercise would mean that you are forced to stay with one employer," one economist told the FT. "If you hate your job, or you feel like you want to grow, you can’t do that in the UK."
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