Jean-Pierre Aubin, AUREL BGC - Se relever du 11 septembre

Yes, notably 658 people out of 900 in New York. The attacks happened early and it was back-to-school time, so some people attending their children's school events were not in the offices, and some people arrived later as well. So 658 deaths out of 900. But thanks to the partnership structure of the firm—it's BGC, which is the successor to Cantor Fitzgerald, the founder Bernie Gerald Cantor created a partnership well before September 11—that allowed the structure to survive. In the years following September 11, 2001, employees were not paid to allow the firm to recover. Beyond the financial issues, technical and organizational management problems would be fatal for many industries, cutting staff in half. But here there was the possibility to be reborn and reorganize very quickly. The big issue was that they had tens of billions of dollars in unsettled transactions, so they were in a near-bankruptcy situation, Chapter 11 in the US. There was strong empathy and solidarity from clients, from regulators who gave us time, and also from Microsoft, for example, who helped us unwind all our operations technologically. It was complicated. And Americans like to get back up; it was also a symbolic value to help this company survive, to show we weren't down.

Yes, we have a very special genetic heritage because in the aftermath of these attacks, we decided to give 25% of our profits—important, the remaining employees were not paid to maximize profits—25% of profits to the families of the victims. So from 2001 to 2004, that represented about 200 million dollars. In the US, Obama wasn't there yet, there was no health insurance, studies are extremely expensive, so we gave this money to families and survivors to help them rebuild. So it was a great solidarity.

Again, it coincided with 2004 and the creation of the former... the brokerage activities that were decimated on September 11, 2001. So again, from 2001 to 2004, we gave to families. Then we said, what do we do? We need to keep this tribute. We tried to create a special day of solidarity every September 11 in all BGC offices worldwide. These 4,000 people, with the largest offices in New York, London, and Paris, where we have 270 people. We are the world number two in fixed income brokerage. And so we will distribute 100% of our revenue on that day to associations around the world.

First of all, clients, who on that day know that 100% of their transactions go to associations. So we generally do 2.5 times the revenue of a normal day on September 11. It's also our employees, and that brings in about 12 to 13 million dollars in donations each September 11 to associations worldwide. In France, there are French associations that will benefit. So it revolves around the domain of sick or disadvantaged children, and also women—all the weak links in the economy today. Clients do more transactions that day, and we also invite guests, VIPs, and now associations come to speak about their work, along with iconic VIPs.

In Paris, it's being organized. We'll have some guests, in the last days we'll have Michel Denisot. We also support the Paris Saint-Germain association, Maisons Rouges et Bleus, with former PSG players. It's an association that buys fields from the Paris city hall, especially in disadvantaged neighborhoods, takes kids after school, helps them with homework so they don't go home, and then leads them to sports. It's not just about champions; there's also coaching, the French Football Federation, and since PSG is multisport, the refereeing body, which helps them see sports from another angle. The goal is to lead them to a job.

Yes, a bit like that. In 2004, the president of the structure, Howard Lutnick, decided to relaunch the brokerage activity. We were world number one in September 2001 and were absolutely not in the rankings afterwards. So he decided to redevelop by buying structures and bringing in people who would build the new company. That was my case over the last ten years. For the French branch, we bought three structures: a company called UTC focused on money market brokerage; Aurel, a major iconic French financial company specialized in equity research, interest rates; and Ginals, a money market broker very recently. As for research, it's still a big part of our activity, this dimension of research and analysis. There's a lot of discussion about its financing. In our international brokerage world, things divide into two: low-value-added activities needing critical mass, where you need to aggregate prices—these are Over-The-Counter (OTC) activities where we need many people, low margins, and must achieve scale. Then there's the other business, certainly the future, which is high-value-added research with a more sophisticated profile for funds and insurance companies. It's a different business and that's what we mainly seek to develop. At Aurel, we are lucky to have both. Without forgetting technology, we have three very distinct businesses in the group. The parent company BGC handles banking clients, what we call LBI and Tier One Banking. Aurel is the emblematic ship for final clients, value-added research. And we also have a fairly strong electronic point in the structure because the brokerage business is suffering, it's no mystery. There's less volatility currently, low rates, and algorithms and electronics are replacing part of human activity. Do you think this profession will change profoundly?

As you mentioned, you have fewer than 300 in Paris. What do you observe about the evolution of the financial center here? It's difficult. With new regulations, Paris generally suffers from financial regulations and taxes. Like other countries, we also have banks with new regulations. Classic trading is a less significant activity in banks, so de facto we have less activity with those desks in banks. Nevertheless, we see that in the equities world, we are quite positive. In this world of very low rates and no volatility—volatility for brokers like us is our friend—we like movement. It doesn't move much now. However, on equities, we are really positive. The M&A market is very lively again. When there's no growth, we eat each other, that's how we artificially create some momentum. Companies are generating profits now, so there are M&A deals. But regarding the Paris financial center, do you remain confident? Some say this center is destined to disappear, crushed between London and Frankfurt.