HSBC is looking for a football pitch-sized office space in east London's Shoreditch or Old Street to bolster its technology capabilities, according to reports from Bloomberg.
Europe’s largest bank hired estate agent CBRE to find 50,000 square feet of space in East London's “Silicon Roundabout” area; home to a cluster of tech startups, the report says.
Many will see the move as the final nail in the coffin of the areas hipster credentials. The office will be focused on "digital growth" at the global banking behemoth, which has been emroiled in scandals over mass tax avoidance at its Swiss branch and allegedly ripping off its own customers for millions by manipulating trades in its favour
Banks have traditionally kept their research and development in-house, building systems behind closed doors to shield them from the competition. However, as the cost of developing new technologies rises and more nimble startups pioneer new ways to bank, many established lenders are becoming more open to external partnerships.
The divisions between the staid, pinstripe world of banking and the more vibrant, laid back and informal technology sector have become visible inside banks themselves in recent years. Aware that they could otherwise lose talented staff to the technology industry, firms such as Barclays and RBS have created dedicated technology floors, with (slightly) more adventurous decor and dress codes.
HSBC is not the only bank threatening to edge eastward. Barclays’ “fintech accelerator” on the fringes of Shoreditch in Whitechapel.
Citigroup Santander, UBS and Wells Fargo are among some two-dozen financial giants hosting so-called accelerators, hackathons and competitions to bring startups to their doors and could soon be looking for space at Silicon Roundabout.
After threatening to leave the UK for tax reasons and what it saw as overly burdensome regulations, "the world's local bank" decided in February to keep its headquarters in London rather than move to Hong Kong.
A spokeswoman for HSBC declined to comment on the lender’s expansion plans.
Additional Reporting by Bloomberg
