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JPMorgan Chase has said it will build a new 3mn square-foot tower in Canary Wharf in a strong show of support for London as a financial centre by one of the world’s largest lenders.
The announcement comes a day after JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon praised UK chancellor Rachel Reeves’ focus on “financial discipline” in her Budget on Thursday, in which banks avoided an increase in industry levies.
The US bank said the new building, located at its Riverside development in Canary Wharf, will house up to 12,000 staff and serve as the bank’s UK headquarters and its “most significant” presence in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The Treasury had asked banks to make public and prominent endorsements of the Budget as Reeves sought to shore up support for her policies, the FT reported previously.
JPMorgan said on Thursday that the planned development was “subject to a continuing positive business environment in the UK”.
The bank had stepped up planning for the tower in recent months as it decided that refitting its existing office in the Docklands financial district would incur significant costs, while few options in the City could meet its requirements.
The site of the new office, bought by JPMorgan in 2008, was originally intended as the bank’s European headquarters, but executives instead opted to move employees into Lehman Brothers’ former European headquarters at 25 Bank Street after the financial crisis.
The new office will take six years to build once “necessary approvals and agreements” are in place, the bank said.
The decision is a boon for Canary Wharf Group, which will co-develop the project. JPMorgan is separately being advised by Sir George Iacobescu, the former chair of CWG. The plans include the redevelopment of the Canary Wharf dock and the creation of new public parkland around the building.
JPMorgan employees in New York have just moved into a new 60-storey, 2.5mn sq ft skyscraper designed by Foster + Partners that cost the bank $3bn. The bank said its London tower, also to be designed by Foster + Partners, would feature terraces and restaurants.