Milan set to lure UK asset managers post Brexit

As uncertainty soars over the post-Brexit fate of the City of London, Milan ratchets up its efforts to lure asset managers and other financiers.

An Italian governmental delegation is set to visit London over the next several weeks in order to attract asset managers from the City of London to the Italian capital’s financial hub. The target is around 15000 financial professionals including investment bankers, and the reward is life in one of Europe’s most interesting and cosmopolitan cities.

An initial attempt to attract fund companies was foiled by the Italian Prime Minister’s failure to force constitutional reforms by means of a referendum. Government sponsored lobbyist group Select Milano is ramping up efforts to secure financial jobs for the city in spite of the expected political upheaval during March’s Italian General Election. Finance Ministry supremo Fabrizio Pagani told reporters he feels it’s unrealistic to expect multinationals to relocate to Italy, with the implication that financial professionals are an excellent substitute. He added the country only just missed out on capturing the European Medicines Authority due to a drawing of straws.

In advance of the campaign, Italian lawmakers rewrote the country’s personal tax regime as a lure for
high-earning expats, with the new rules partly designed with corporate fund executives in mind. Incentives include a 15-year duration flat €100,000 annual tax on overseas earnings aimed at wealthy individuals as well as a 50 per cent cut in income tax valid for five years and applicable to middle managers.

Pagani believes London will stay on as an important financial centre and will still be part of a wide spread of financial trading hubs, similar to the scene in the 1990s. Italy’s fund industry is Europe’s sixth largest, with €1.2 trillion in assets and five per cent of the market share.