JPMorgan plans Europe HQ in Canary Wharf

By Sinead Cruise

LONDON (Reuters) - JPMorgan is to set up its new European headquarters at London's Canary Wharf financial hub after scrapping plans to take space in the City of London, Britain's historic financial heartland, the bank said on Friday.

The U.S bank is the latest in a series of global financial heavyweights to abandon London's Square Mile in favour of Canary Wharf, which lies a few miles east of the City and is home to rival banks including Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, HSBC and Bank of America.

The proposed new building will be developed by Canary Wharf Group at Canary Riverside South, and will enable JPMorgan to achieve a long-term ambition to consolidate a clutch of existing London offices at one address.

It would also serve to integrate employees brought together following JPMorgan's takeover of collapsed investment bank Bear Stearns.

"We are delighted to be negotiating with Canary Wharf for a new building, which we intend to be a premier facility in the heart of a premier financial district," Bill Winters, co-head of JPMorgan's Investment Bank, said in a statement.

Canary Wharf has steadily grown in popularity among global banking sector occupiers, largely due to its size, lower average rents and capacity to house tenants in bespoke buildings.

Analysts said JPMorgan's decision to set up home in Canary Wharf was also influenced by persistent banking sector turmoil and its inheritance of another new office building Bear Stearns had signed up to before its demise.

"The economic case (to move to the City) is just not there anymore," one analyst said on condition of anonymity.