HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, is facing a costly dilemma over office space after pandemic-era downsizing left it short of desks for a workforce now being urged back into the office.
The bank, which dramatically slashed its global office footprint by 40% under former CEO Noel Quinn during the COVID-19 lockdowns, is now scrambling to find extra room for staff in London, India, and China. If current plans remain unchanged, HSBC’s employees will have access to a desk just one-and-a-half days a week when the bank relocates to its smaller City of London headquarters in 2027.
Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that acquiring sufficient additional office space to accommodate a three-day-per-week in-office policy could cost the bank around £150 million annually. HSBC has declined to comment publicly on the figure.
The shortage of space comes as new CEO Georges Elhedery attempts to implement a sweeping global restructuring aimed at saving £1.1 billion annually. But insiders say the lack of desks risks undermining his back-to-office push — a shift from the remote-friendly tone adopted during the pandemic.
Back in 2021, Quinn declared that COVID-19 had ushered in “a very different style of working,” prompting the decision to exit HSBC’s iconic Canary Wharf tower by 2027 and relocate to BT’s former headquarters near St. Paul’s Cathedral — a building roughly half the size of its current home.
Now, just months into Elhedery’s tenure, HSBC is already scouting for extra space. Talks are reportedly under way to secure nearby floors in the City and possibly sublease vacant offices at 40 Bank Street — just a five-minute walk from its current Canary Wharf base — to cope with looming shortages.
The squeeze isn’t just in London. HSBC’s offices in Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Guangzhou are also reportedly running out of room. With a UK workforce of 34,700 and growing pressure to increase in-office attendance, the bank may soon find itself paying heavily to reverse the very cuts it once championed.
