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NEW YORK, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Wall Street and the finance industry have broad misgivings about the prospect of frontrunner Zohran Mamdani becoming New York City's mayor, but many are hopeful he moderates his positions as they prepare to try and work alongside him. Sign up here. "There are a whole bunch of ideas that are well-intentioned. What I agree with is that he has attracted real passion," said Cromwell Coulson, chief executive at Manhattan-based markets data and trading platform OTC Markets Group. Still, Coulson cited concerns, saying that some people could be driven to leave the city if it becomes an unfriendly place for commerce. "It won’t be day one, but you will see where our hiring footprints go," said Coulson, who said he ultimately supports Mamdani's top rival in the race, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, a moderate Democrat. Republican Curtis Sliwa is also on the ballot in the November 4 election. Reuters spoke to more than half a dozen other members of the finance community, including executives or representatives of financial firms or industry sectors, who declined to be named talking about politics. "If the election turns out the way the polls suggest, ... let's hope that the worst fears of what might occur thereafter are not realized and that the new mayor, whoever it might be, continues to realize the importance of the business community to the city," Peter Orszag, CEO of financial advisory and asset management firm Lazard CEO, said on a recent earnings conference call. Orszag had served under Democratic former President Barack Obama as director of the Office of Management and Budget. Billionaire investor Dan Loeb has donated $600,000 to Fix the City and $100,000 to Defend NYC. Representatives for both Ackman and Loeb declined comment. The call with Dimon was previously reported by Bloomberg. Yasser Salem, CEO of OneNYC, an independent expenditure committee that backs Mamdani, told Reuters in an interview that he is assembling an advisory council of business leaders to work with Mamdani if he prevails. "We are highly focused on building specific instances and demonstrations of trust" with the business community, Salem said. Representatives for Mamdani and Cuomo did not respond to requests for comment. Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University in New York, noted that for tax hikes to be enacted Mamdani would have to work in conjunction with Albany, which must approve any city tax hikes. "Whatever process will happen will be incredibly slow and may never actually affect" wealthy residents, said Greer. RIPPLE EFFECTS THROUGH CITY Real estate could see a ripple effect, with Mamdani pushing for a rent freeze on rent-stabilized apartments, a measure undertaken by former Mayor Bill de Blasio but reversed by the current outgoing mayor, Eric Adams. A potential rent freeze has spooked many landlords and lenders, said Paul Rahimian, CEO of Parkview Financial, a Los Angeles real estate lender which has a New York City office. Rahimian said the firm was taking a “hold and see” attitude to extending new loans to real estate developers and projects in New York until after the election. “There are a lot of landlords that are now no longer making money but whose properties are costing them money every year,” he said. Isaac Toledano, founder and CEO of Miami-based real estate investment firm BH Group, said he anticipated that 2026 would be busy with relocations from New York to Florida if Mamdani wins. "There are a lot of people that do not agree with what he's going to do," said Toledano. Reporting by Anirban Sen, Tatiana Bautzer, Lananh Nguyen, Suzanne McGee; additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova, Matt Tracy, Megan Davies; Writing by Megan Davies; Editing by Leslie Adler Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Anirban Sen is the Editor in Charge of Market Structure at Reuters in New York where he leads the news agency's coverage of stock exchanges, and market-making firms including Jane Street and Citadel Securities. Previously Anirban was M&A Editor at Reuters, leading a team of reporters who regularly broke market-moving news about the biggest deals in corporate America. Some of his scoops have included Mars' $36 billion deal for snack maker Kellanova, design software firm Synopsys' $35 billion deal for Ansys, and buyout firm GTCR’s $18.5 billion deal for merchant services provider Worldpay. In 2023, Anirban was part of a Reuters team that won a Gerald Loeb Award for the agency's coverage of the collapse of FTX. After starting with Reuters in Bangalore in 2009, he left in 2013 to work as a technology deals reporter in several leading business news outlets in India, including The Economic Times and Mint. Anirban rejoined Reuters in 2019 as Editor in Charge, Finance, to lead a team of reporters in India, covering everything from investment banking to venture capital. Lananh Nguyen is the U.S. finance editor at Reuters in New York, leading coverage of U.S. banks. She joined Reuters in 2022 after reporting on Wall Street at The New York Times. Lananh spent more than a decade at Bloomberg News in New York and London, where she wrote extensively about banking and financial markets, and she previously worked at Dow Jones Newswires/The Wall Street Journal. Lananh holds a B.A. in political science from Tufts University and an M.Sc. in finance and economic policy from the University of London.
