The French government has pledged to make its tax regime for expatriates the most favourable in Europe, in a grab for London banking business displaced by Britain’s decision to quit the European Union.
“We want to build the financial capital of the future,” the prime minister, Manuel Valls, said at a hastily arranged visit to the annual conference of France’s financial industry lobby, Europlace. “In a word, now is the time to come to France.”
France’s financial sector has often complained of government ambivalence towards the industry, which is subject to high taxes and sometimes hostile remarks from politicians.
But Paris sees an opportunity in last month’s Brexit vote, the regulatory implications of which place a huge question mark over London’s place as the centre of Europe’s banking business.
“We are bringing solutions today to companies that are asking questions and expecting answers to prepare for the future,” Valls said, to enthusiastic applause from the audience of senior bankers and finance chiefs.
He said France’s already favourable tax regime for expatriates and French nationals returning from stints abroad would in future be applicable for their first eight years in France, up from five currently.
The scheme includes deductions for non-salary perks such as employers paying for employees’ children’s school fees and for revenue earned on capital held abroad.
Valls said the government would also set up a one-stop administrative point for foreign firms seeking a foothold in France with service in languages other than French.
Meanwhile, for the benefit of expat families, schools would open as many classes for foreign children in their native language as necessary.
For his part, the Bank of France governor, François Villeroy de Galhau, promised French regulators would quickly examine applications from any financial institutions licensed in Britain that might seek to set up shop in France.
“We are not in a war with London … but there is competition and we want to make Paris Europe’s top financial centre,” the head of the wider Paris region, Valérie Pécresse, told bankers.
Though often neglected in the past, the industry’s proposals for making Paris more attractive internationally are no longer falling on closed ears.
France’s Socialist president, François Hollande, said last week that tax regulations needed to be adapted to make Paris more attractive, in stark contrast to his description of the finance industry as his main enemy during his 2012 election campaign.
The French finance minister, Michel Sapin, turned the tables on the outgoing British prime minister, David Cameron, who had offered to “roll out the red carpet” for French firms when Hollande took office in 2012. The day after the Brexit vote, Sapin told reporters: “The red carpet can be used both ways.”
Paris is already the biggest centre for many markets in the eurozone, including corporate bond issuance and investment management, with €3.6tn (£3.1tn) of assets under management.
Other financial centres in the currency bloc got an early start in lobbying London financial firms before the vote on Britain’s EU membership vote last month.
Madrid said on Monday it was considering granting tax breaks to attract banks and international firms looking to move operations away from Britain after its vote to leave the EU.
France and other EU countries argue that British financial companies should not be able to keep the “passport” which allows them access to EU markets unless Britain accepts the free movement of people, which Brexit campaigners oppose.