Many international banks in London have already announced the new location of their European activities should a “hard” Brexit occur. A hard Brexit would see the U.K. relinquish access to the single market and right to financial passporting.

Frankfurt is proving to be the most popular destination for relocation by far. As early as April this year, Deutsche Bank announced its intention to relocate as many as 4000 jobs to Germany.

Although French financial institutions have been indecisive about their strategies, the bankers who are employed by them in London are of the opinion that pressure from French President, Emmanuel Macron’s administration makes relocation to Paris likely.

According to an analyst at Taipei, Taiwan-based investment house Burton Mills, Macron’s government is pushing hard for French banks to relocate some of their senior staff to Parisafter Brexit. The government is in the process of establishing international schools and promising attractive tax breaks.

The analyst added that unless there ended up being a “soft” Brexit agreement, a move to Paris for many senior bankers seemed inevitable.

With the majority of American bankers well on their way to relocating to Frankfurt from London, there is greater pressure for French bankers to head home.

France’s finance ministry has stated that there is a strong desire for domestic banks to base more of their employees in France.

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September 15, 2016: Avis Budget Group, a leading provider of vehicle rental services, announced it has agreed to purchase France Cars, a privately-held vehicle rental company based in France, to significantly expand its presence in the French market. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

This purchase will give Avis Budget Group the second-largest light commercial vehicle fleet in France. It is also a key step in affirming the company’s commitment to the local market, further increasing its ability to serve customers of all sizes, from entrepreneurs to multinationals to leisure travelers. The acquisition will add 8,000 cars, vans and light trucks to the Avis Budget Group fleet and will also add more than 60 locations to the Company’s rental network. France Cars generates vehicle rental revenues of approximately €60 million annually.

Mark Servodidio, President, International, Avis Budget Group, said, “We’re excited to announce our agreement to acquire France Cars.  We are committed to strengthening our presence in the local market, and this acquisition will complement our existing operations in the country. France Cars will bring a strong presence in the French local market business and a leading position in the light commercial vehicle segment.”

This transaction represents continued execution on Avis Budget’s strategy to expand its presence in urban and suburban markets within Europe. Last year, the Company acquired Maggiore Group, Italy’s fourth-largest vehicle rental business.

Thierry Jardin, Chief Executive Officer of France Cars, commented, “We are excited by Avis Budget Group’s commitment to acquire France Cars and are looking forward to working closely together.”

Closing of the acquisition is subject to consultation with France Cars’ employee representatives and customary conditions, including merger control clearance, and is expected to be completed prior to the end of 2016. This acquisition does not affect Avis Budget Group’s previously announced intention to repurchase $350 to $400 million of its stock in 2016.

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June 22, 2016: Société Générale, a French multinational banking and financial company and La Banque Postale, a French bank, have signed a memorandum of understanding to expand the operations of their joint venture Transactis, from card transactions to European and international wire transfers and direct debits.

Since the successful payment card processing partnership that enabled the banks to achieve significant savings in unit-transaction handling costs between 2008 and 2015, and the inclusion of Crédit du Nord in their shared system, Transactis handles 22% of payment cards and card transactions in France.

The two banks have now decided to layer a new industry partnership on top of this existing operational framework, providing Transactis with a shared platform to manage the electronic processing of all their wire transfer and direct debit transactions.

They have chosen to work with Sopra Banking Software, a leading developer of payment applications in Europe and a longstanding partner of both Société Générale and La Banque Postale, using its enterprise software solution Sopra Banking Platform for Payments.

This new and innovative partnership – the first of its kind in Europe – will combine the knowhow of two banks and one software developer, to meet three objectives:

– Build a high-performance, innovative, shared IT management platform to address new needs on the market such as instant payments and mobile banking

– Pool transaction costs for all payments from 2018 based on a model similar to that of card transactions

– Offer the platform’s services on the European market and make Transactis a leader in electronic payment processing services for the continent’s financial industry

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August 26, 2014: On August 20, Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development and CRI Online jointly launched ‘Feeling Beijing’ Online Contest for Global Audiences in six languages — Chinese, English, German, French, Japanese and Korean. It enables people from around the world to answer a questionnaire in their native languages by visiting www.cri.cn.

The campaign will last till October 20. The questions cover a wide range of areas, including Beijing’s history, culture, tourism, as well as the 72-hour visa-free transit policy. The contest is expected to generate interest in Beijing’s history, tourism or food.

China Radio International (CRI) Online invited its foreign experts to help design questions according to their understanding of what interest people from other countries might have in Beijing. For example, Germans and French like football very much. Experts from German and French raised a question about “the most famous football team in Beijing”.

Participants may answer the questionnaire again if unsatisfied with their previous trials. The final version of answers will be seen as the valid answers. Participants should leave their contact information, including name, email address, etc. Each language service will select one lucky participant to visit Beijing and attend the ceremony related to this event for free.

This contest, organised to showcase Chinese cities and their regional culture and urban economic development, is one of CRI Online’s brand events. In recent years, CRI Online has cooperated with the State Council Information Office of China, Tourism Bureau of Sichuan Province and the Information Office of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to organise events such as ‘Feeling China’, ‘Travel in the Heaven on Earth’ and ‘Closer to Xinjiang’, which have achieved sound promotional effects.

Source: CRI Online

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July 24, 2014: Nearly two months after the regional and federal elections in Belgium, it seems that the political process to form new governing coalitions is nearing an end. The elections took place on May 25.

At the regional level, in Wallonia and Brussels, center-left coalitions will be in place. Both include the PS (French speaking socialists) and CDh (French speaking center), plus the FDF (French speaking federalists) in Brussels. The official launch of the new governments took place last weekend.

In Flanders, it was announced on Tuesday that a center-right coalition will be put in place. The first round of negotiations included the CD&V (Christian-Democrats) and N-VA (Flemish nationalists).

Surprisingly, the OpenVLD (Flemish Liberals) entered the coalition at the very last moment. Even if this party was not essential to build a majority, there is a natural convergence between its political program and the one of the two other parties. More importantly, integrating the OpenVLD in the Flemish government opened the door to reach an agreement at the federal level.

Indeed, as it seemed impossible to reach an agreement between the N-VA (dominating party in Flanders) and the PS (dominating party in Brussels and Wallonia), replicating the regional majorities at the federal level in order to maintain some symmetry between the different levels of power wasn’t an option.

As a consequence, the N-VA first tried to form a center-right coalition (N-VA, CD&V, MR, CDh) at the federal level. The N-VA is the big winner of the elections.

The CD&V and the MR agreed on the preliminary note written by N-VA leader Bart De Wever, but the CDh refused to enter such a government (knowing that it is part of a center left government in Wallonia and Brussels).

The only remaining option was then to replace the French speaking CDh by the Flemish OpenVLD. As the OpenVLD insisted on being in both Flemish and federal coalitions, accepting it in the Flemish government removed the last obstacle to this coalition at the federal level.

Kris Peeters, a leader of the CD&V, and Charles Michel, president of the MR, have been officially charged by King Philippe to form the new federal government.

Source: Philippe Ledent, ING

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