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May 2001

Selling financial Paris


Marc Viénot talks about his paris Europlace and life after Société Générale.




Marc Viénot, ever a dynamic and committed executive, didn't really retire when he stepped down from his post as chairman of Société Générale on his 69th birthday in 1997.
In addition to serving on the board of directors of such companies as Vivendi, Alcatel and Aventis, he is chairman of Paris Europlace. The organization represents financial institutions in the French capital and promotes Paris as a financial centre.
Euromoney spoke to him about the pressure group and his role in it.
How did you become involved in Paris Europlace?
I became chairman of Paris Europlace because I was asked to be there by Ernest-Antoine Sellière who created Paris Europlace in 1993.
When you retire either you give up everything that you have done previously or you have to get other activities. Paris Europlace was a good way to stay "in" during my retirement. It happened to be active when I took the office.
I became chairman in February 1998 and then in July, London and Frankfurt merged. So we had to react to this. Then they did it again last year and we reacted by merging with Amsterdam and Brussels.
What is the purpose of Paris Europlace?
The job of Paris Europlace is to promote Paris as a financial centre abroad. Paris is a good gateway to Europe and to the euro. We have each year a presentation of Paris that we've taken to New York, London, Brussels and Tokyo.
In what way do you promote Paris as a financial centre?
What is important is to say finally that there is a real financial centre in Paris and that in France they have a better perception of the role.
How would you characterize Paris as a financial centre?
I had an in-depth study made of Paris as a financial centre by McKinsey. They've done the same study for Amsterdam and Zurich. In their view, we can develop in Europe. I communicated this to the board of Paris Europlace, suggesting that we settle some working groups on the topics that we studied together. So we created five groups headed by good people. One was gathering the issuers of big companies, what interested them in Paris and what suggestions they could make for progress.
Another group was intermediary, mostly bankers. The third one was on investors in those companies and from the major asset managers and so on, how to develop. The fourth one was on new economy, how we can develop it.
And the fifth was on the legal and regulatory environment and taxing.
What problems face Paris as a financial market?
The different financial actors - issuers, intermediaries and investment managers - don't sufficiently understand that all their interests are linked to each other. Each follows his own interests. London has no problem, they have been a prime financial centre for years. They have a huge capitalization, a very large stock exchange.
Their role as a financial centre has always been protected, even by a socialist government. The City of London consider themselves part of something very important to the country. In Frankfurt you have two or three leaders. One is Rolf Breuer, chairman of Deutsche Bank and the Börse. They have a very hierarchical type of reaction. In France the common interest is a bit weak. When you tell people that one out of 12 jobs in Paris is a financial job, they become more sensitive to the issue.






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