HSBC Canary Wharf headquarters turns exec offices into client meeting rooms

HSBC Holdings has scrapped the executive floor of its Canary Wharf headquarters in London and turned the private offices of its top staff into client meeting rooms and collaborative spaces, Bloomberg reports, citing the Financial Times.

Chief Executive Noel Quinn and other senior managers have been moved out of their offices on the 42nd-floor and will hot desk on an open-plan floor two levels below, Quinn told the Financial Times in an interview. The offices were empty half of the time because senior staff were traveling around the world, which was a “waste of real estate,” he said.

Quinn told the newspaper that he won’t be in the office five days a week, saying “it’s unnecessary” and “the new reality of life.” A representative for HSBC confirmed the FT report to Bloomberg News.

The London-based bank, which expects to eventually shrink its property footprint by 40 percent, doesn’t plan to renew many of its city-center leases due in the next three to five years, Quinn said. The lender is also shifting to a policy of about two employees per desk, excluding branches, he said.