Reportedly HSBC Holdings PLC has sent home a staff in london after a worker tested positive for the coronavirus, the first known case at a major company in Europe's main financial hub. The bank also has an employee in china with the virus who is in a stable condition, interim Chief Executive noel Quinn said in an internal memo seen by Reuters.
Banks worldwide are readying out-of-town offices and isolating some teams to ensure trading operations continue if the virus spreads to more financial centres. Italy's UniCredit also sent home some staff after two new infections among its employees, one each in germany and Italy. JPMorgan is moving traders in New York and london to a number of locations, it said in a memo on Thursday.
The US bank runs a british disaster recovery site in Basingstoke, southwest of london, with an alternative building near Blackfriars bridge in the central part of the capital. Sources said the bank has officially moved from testing to execution, adding that the biggest wave of moves would happen on march 9. Goldman Sachs has been testing a back-up site in Croydon in south london, while Barclays has an office in Northolt, in the city's northwest, that it plans to use as a back-up. In spain, BBVA said on thursday it had transferred up to 100 staff from its Madrid trading floor to a location just outside the city in a contingency measure against potential disruption by the outbreak.
