LONDON (Reuters) - Japan’s MUFG (8306.T) and Mizuho (8411.T) have hired a total of nearly 100 staff in London in the last 6 months, bolstering their trading and investment banking teams despite industry concerns over Brexit’s impact on financial services in Britain.
Mizuho has hired more than 25 senior bankers and traders, while MUFG has hired seven senior investment bankers, an aviation finance team from Germany’s DVB Bank and dozens of back office risk and compliance staff, information from sources and internal bank memos seen by Reuters show.
Wall Street and European rivals are moving staff from London to other European hubs, concerned about being able to keep serving clients with Britain outside the European Union.
The latest EY Financial Services Brexit Tracker showed 43 financial firms have announced plans to make local hires for more than 2,400 roles in the EU. The total number of jobs seen likely to relocate from London to the EU is around 7,000.
Financial lobby group TheCityUK said the financial services industry employs 1.1 million across Britain, mainly outside London.
The Japanese banks had cut back too far and are taking advantage of a relative lack of competition, headhunters said.
“They have been recruiting for the last four or five months, and towards the back end of last year, they have really come back out in force,” Ben Harris, senior manager at recruitment firm Morgan McKinley, said.
“They have taken in some heavyweight individuals away from other big banks who have been very cautious about adding headcount,” Harris added.
Mizuho has
