The home of the Texas Longhorn is branding itself as the nation’s financial leader. In late May, Gov. Greg Abbott issued an official proclamation at a Texas Bankers Association convention, declaring Texas the “Financial Capital of America.”
“America is choosing Texas,” Texas Banking Association CEO Chris Furlow chimed in. “The world is choosing Texas.”
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In an interview with Site Selection (a publication geared to CEOs, realtors and site selection consultants), Abbott said Texas had the “largest financial services workforce in the nation, even surpassing New York.”
So is it true — or just hype? Here’s a look at whether Y’All Street is taking over Wall Street.
Texas lures financial heavyweights
Certainly a lot of financial heavyweights have moved to the Dallas-Forth Worth region in the past few years, attracted by business- and tax-friendly regulations (notably, there are no state income taxes in Texas).
A ready supply of capital is also appealing. By GDP, Texas is one of the world’s top 10 economiessecond only to California in the US and ahead of New York. It’s also a convenient hub for business with Latin America, given its geography.
According to The Guardianthere are now 386,000 financial-sector employees in Texas. JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) employs more people in Texas (31,000) than New York (24,000), including 12,000 workers at a corporate hub in Plano, Texas.
Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW) relocated its headquarters from California to Dallas-Fort Worth in 2021. Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is building a $500-million financial center in Dallas to house 5,000 employees — the firm’s largest site outside of its New York, where 7,800 work at corporate headquarters.
Texas plans to launch a Texas Stock Exchangewith $270 million in capital investment to date from Ken Griffin’s Citadel Securities, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and BlackRock (NYSE: BLK).
Meanwhile, the New York Stock Exchange has set up a satellite exchange — NYSE Texas — in Dallas.
As The Guardian reportsDallas Mayor Eric Johnson’s team is actively reaching out to Wall Street execs who might be put off by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plans to increase property taxes. Citadel’s billionaire CEO Ken Griffin has already talked about relocating in the face of Mamdani’s new pied-a-terre tax,