(Bloomberg) -- One of Lazard Inc.’s top bankers in France, Charles-Henri Filippi, is leaving in the latest defection from the US bank to M&A advisory boutique Evercore Inc., according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Filippi, a senior adviser who is also non-executive co-chair of investment banking in France at Lazard, is in talks to join Evercore’s French operations in a senior capacity, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is confidential. His move comes amid the departure of five other bankers who are also leaving Lazard’s Paris office for Evercore, they said.

Two Paris-based managing directors at Lazard — Andrea Bozzi and Charles Andrez — are joining Evercore to spearhead the firm’s push into continental Europe, the people said. Evercore is growing its banking team in Paris, and hired three other Lazard junior bankers — Cassandre Devoir, Charlotte Lefort and Raoul Mansour — in the French capital, the people said. 

The New York-based boutique bank is planning to poach more bankers in France, the people said. It already has an office in London, and currently has two senior managing directors in Paris. Representatives for Evercore and Lazard declined to comment. 

Wall Street banks including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. — as well as boutique firms — have been adding staff in Paris as the city grows in influence following the UK’s departure from the European Union. Barclays Plc also said last year that it expects to increase its headcount in Paris by about two thirds in the next two to three years, as the French capital increasingly becomes the main trading hub in continental Europe.

Read: Banks Betting on Paris Say There Really Is Life After London

Filippi started at Lazard in 2018 under the firm’s former France CEO Matthieu Pigasse, who joined Centerview Partners LLC in 2020 when it set up its Paris office. Filippi sits on the board of French real estate firm Nexity SA and previously served as chairman of Citigroup France between 2011 and 2017. 

The banker, who is originally from Corsica, began his career in the French civil service and government departments, and joined Credit Commercial de France in 1987 where he became CEO in 1998. Following CCF’s acquisition by HSBC in 2001, he held several leadership roles at the London-listed bank.

--With assistance from Todd Gillespie.

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