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* More banks send staff home as virus spreads in London
* Lenders cancel travel, split up trading teams
* Pragmatism reigns as some hedge fund staff return to work
(Updates Morgan Stanley plans)
By Lawrence White and Iain Withers
LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) - More than 50 staff at Societe
Generale's London office were working from home on
Friday, while Bank of America Corp is splitting its
trading force and sending 100 New York-based staff to nearby
Stamford, Connecticut, from Monday as a precaution against
spread of the coronavirus, sources familiar with the matter
said.
Morgan Stanley is shifting part of its London and New
York-based sales and trading staff to its sites near Heathrow
Airport and Westchester County, New York, respectively, as well
as having some teams work from home starting on Monday,
according to sources familiar with the plans.
The three banks join other financial companies sending staff
home, splitting up trading teams and activating backup offices
in a bid to contain the spread of the virus in the world's
largest financial and business hubs.
The number of people infected with the coronavirus across
the world surpassed 100,000 on Friday. The outbreak has killed
more than 3,400 people and spread across more than 90 nations,
with six countries reporting their first cases on Friday.
Societe Generale declined to comment on how many of its
London staff were working away from its office in Canary Wharf
but said it has instituted travel restrictions, rotation of
staff and work-from-home arrangements.
Commodity broker Marex Spectron said late on Thursday that
one of its London employees had tested positive for coronavirus.
It said the individual had attended a Marex Spectron-sponsored
event during IP week, a major petroleum industry gathering, on
Feb. 25 in London.
Citigroup has sent 10% of traders who usually work in
its Canary Wharf office in London to a backup site in Lewisham,
a source familiar with the move said.
Allied Irish Banks has cancelled a planned
post-results road show to London as a result of a ban on
non-essential travel and has conducted a deep clean of all
branches, Chief Executive Colin Hunt said in a radio interview.
"Earlier this week we introduced a ban on all non-essential
travel across the group, that's one of the reasons why I'm
talking to you this morning from Dublin and not London," he
said.
Jefferies Financial Group Inc executives told
clients on Friday it had put in place business continuity and
technology plans to enable it to operate remotely.
"Those plans include both the technology to continue to
trade and the technology that will permit us to continue to
communicate seamlessly with each other, with you, with our
regulators, and with our partners and affiliates," the email
said.
HSBC and Standard Chartered have also
convened committees of senior executives to give daily briefings
on the crisis.
HSBC on Thursday sent home more than 100 staff in London
after a worker tested positive for the virus, the first known
case at a major company in Europe's financial hub.
DON'T PANIC
The mood among financial firms was more practical than
panicked.
"Had a few hedge funds that went into full shutdown on
Monday because of coronavirus but then realised they were
over-reacting and went back into the office later in the week,"
said one hedge fund recruiter.
Staff in coffee shops in the Canary Wharf financial district
said business was down, but they hoped for only a short-lived
disruption to normal customer traffic.
"We expect it to be quieter for the next few days," said a
worker named Tahar in a Starbucks in Canary Wharf.
An employee in a branch of the Notes coffee chain in the
financial area said business was down compared with the usually
busy Friday rush.
"People just want to be safe I guess. We are hoping things
pick up soon," she said.
(Reporting by Lawrence White and Iain Withers
additional reporting by Pamela Barbaglia, Clara Denina and Maiya
Keidan in London, Padraic Halpin in Dublin, Imani Moise,
Elizabeth Dilts and Anna Irrera in New York; Editing by Dan
Grebler and Leslie Adler)
