A special teaser episode with Bank Of America Chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan, who says he is absolutely committed to the ...
Questions asked in this interview
3
0:59Are you committed to the UK kind of regardless or even in particular in light of the recent government changes?
3:20... some business taxes, national insurance contribution in particular went up, various taxes went up last week, but perhaps with less of a focus maybe than some would have expected on banks and big businesses. Do you think he's listening?
5:59... Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, in light of tough challenges, we've got high debt problems, we talked about that in the US, in light of those challenges, they're doing the right thing for Bank of America to stay committed to Britain?
Welcome to the Master Investor podcast, a special teaser episode with Brian Moynihan, the chairman and CEO of Bank of America. In this teaser episode, we're playing just his comments on the UK. And then coming in a couple of days will be our full conversation covering his career, Bank of America, the US, and markets more broadly. That's coming next week. But for now, here is our teaser episode with Brian Moynihan on the UK.
Let's touch on the UK for a bit if we can. I think I'm right in saying that you've got about 6,000 people in the UK overall. You've got another thousand in the Republic of Ireland, 2,000 across continental Europe. So the UK is very much still your stronghold for the region.
Exactly. I saw that was announced a month or so ago, so put it to sort of 7,000 or so across the United Kingdom. I actually had missed the extent. I know you've increased your headcount in Europe, but clearly not that much relative to the UK. There's a lot of questions at the moment. The budget just passed, taxes went up again. Are you committed to the UK kind of regardless or even in particular in light of the recent government changes?
Absolutely. This is our headquarters of the world. So Bernie Mensah, our head of international, sits here. And so you know Brexit happened and we just have to adjust to it. So we put more people in Paris and we went to Paris first because the talent base is there. So why we go to Paris is instructive to why London is so important: talent, schools, places to live, a city people want to go to. Remember, we're just people, you know, we're people, buildings, and computers. And those talented teammates have got to want to live where we're sent. So London is a great city for young kids to come work. People from all over the world will come work here a while and leave, and others will stay here permanently, and British citizens will be employed by us. So it's a core thing. And when I talk to the prime minister and his team, I say that's the advantage you have. You're built. Other financial centers are trying to build. There was a day when Moscow was going to build a financial center, and there's Hong Kong and its ups and downs, and Japan and Tokyo. I said, 'You're built. You're there. You've got to realize this is one of your best industries. You have many other good industries, but a great industry for US financial services. Understand the history of the financial crisis and some of that is important to understand. But remember that if you can attract these jobs that are very strong jobs, they create a lot of throughput. The jobs in our company average $125,000 average pay and above. And so they're jobs that the average pay in the UK would be much higher than that, frankly, because we don't have the consumer business. And so they're good jobs. They employ a lot of good people. Those people spend a lot of money. And if you get the rules set right and the taxation set right, fair to your citizens but fair to the companies, you can win. And that's exactly what I said to the current prime minister and his team, and I'd say it over and over again: you have more upside for the UK right now than anything else.
And do you think that your message was heard? Because a year ago, obviously, some business taxes, national insurance contribution in particular went up, various taxes went up last week, but perhaps with less of a focus maybe than some would have expected on banks and big businesses. Do you think he's listening?
Moynihan, B. (2025, December 4). TEASER - Brian Moynihan: Bank Of America CEO Commits to UK [Interview transcript]. The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/567185/
MLA
Brian Moynihan. "TEASER - Brian Moynihan: Bank Of America CEO Commits to UK." The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost, 4 Dec. 2025. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/567185/.
BibTeX
@misc{moynihan2025_567185,
author = {Brian Moynihan},
title = {TEASER - Brian Moynihan: Bank Of America CEO Commits to UK},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2025},
month = {dec},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/567185/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
