By Iain Withers
LONDON (Reuters) – JPMorgan is assessing options for its European headquarters in London as the fast-expanding Wall Street bank outgrows its existing tower in London’s Canary Wharf financial district, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The bank has begun examining options for where to base around 12,000 staff in London, with a decision likely to be made some time after U.S. staff move into their new global headquarters in New York next year, the sources said.
JPMorgan’s European headquarters has been at 25 Bank Street since 2012, after it acquired the tower from collapsed rival Lehman Brothers following the global financial crisis.
The deliberations by the world’s largest bank in London will be watched closely by the property industry.
Like other U.S. investment banks, JPMorgan under CEO Jamie Dimon has been one of the most strident in pushing for employees to return to the office after the COVID-19 pandemic. That, combined with growing headcount at the bank and its British retail subsidiary Chase UK, has increased the urgency of needing more space.
Its current office at Bank Street, a 33-storey tower with 1.1 million square feet, is full up, one of the sources said.
The bank could require as much as 1.5-2.0 million sq ft of space in London in future, another of the sources said.
JPMorgan is considering three options – upgrading 25 Bank Street, building a new tower in Canary Wharf on land it already owns, or relocating to central London – the sources said.
However, leaving Canary Wharf is the least likely option given the sheer amount of office space required, two of the sources said.
The bank has begun drawing up plans to spend potentially hundreds of millions of pounds upgrading its existing office, two separate sources said.
No final decisions have been made and any move could take years to execute, the sources said, speaking anonymously while discussing confidential plans.
JPMorgan and Canary Wharf Group, which manages the east London financial district, declined to comment.
(Reporting by Iain Withers; Editing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes and Elaine Hardcastle)