* HSBC worker in London tests positive for the coronavirus
* UniCredit sends some staff home in Munich and Piacenza
(Adds HSBC China case, S&P Global Platts evacuation)
By Lawrence White, Pamela Barbaglia and Karin Strohecker
LONDON/MILAN , March 5 (Reuters) - HSBC has sent more than
100 of its London staff home 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, according to an internal memo from
interim Chief Executive Noel Quinn seen by Reuters.
Banks globally are readying out-of-town offices and
isolating some teams to ensure they can keep trading if
coronavirus spreads in more major financial centres.
Italy's UniCredit also told some staff to go home after two
new infections were reported among its employees - one in
Germany and one in Italy.
JPMorgan said in a memo on Thursday that it was moving
traders in New York and London to a number of locations.
The U.S. bank runs a British disaster recovery site in
Basingstoke, southwest of London, and has an alternative
building in central London near the Blackfriars bridge.
"The bank has officially moved from testing to execution,"
said a source familiar with the matter, adding the biggest wave
of moves would happen on March 9.
Goldman Sachs has been testing a back-up site in
Croydon, south London, while Barclays has an office in Northolt,
in the northwest of the capital, it is planning to use as a
back-up.
The possibility of the coronavirus spreading across the
finance industry is worrying regulators, who fear the absence of
important staff could lead to liquidity problems in markets if
firms cannot operate their trading operations normally.
The European Central Bank has asked euro zone banks to
urgently test their large-scale remote working arrangements or
other flexible working arrangements for critical staff, a letter
dated Tuesday that was seen by Reuters showed.
German and British financial regulators have also said they
are watching how prepared banks and other institutions are.
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 as part of its contingency plan to protect
operations from potential disruption related to the coronavirus
outbreak.
FINANCIAL DISTRICT
At HSBC, an employee in its research department in London
self-isolated on Sunday, sources familiar with the matter told
Reuters.
The employee was later confirmed to have the coronavirus and
on Thursday morning the bank sent home more than 100 people from
the research department, a bank spokeswoman said.
HSBC has told staff who came into contact with the man to
work from home as areas affected undergo a thorough clean.
"We have been informed that one of our employees at 8 Canada
Square has been diagnosed with COVID-19. This colleague is under
medical supervision and has self-isolated," the spokeswoman
said.
"All staff whose roles allow remote working have been told
they can work from home if preferred."
HSBC's London office is in Canary Wharf, a major financial
district that hosts many investment banks, including Citi,
JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Barclays.
HSBC's headquarters remains open, the bank said.
The lender separately on Wednesday sent home 20 staff from
its global banking and markets division as a precaution because
one person had come into contact with someone infected with the
virus, the HSBC spokeswoman said.
The 20 people have since returned to work, she said.
The bank's coronavirus cases in China and London are
unrelated, CEO Quinn told staff in the internal memo.
Commodity pricing agency S&P Global Platts told around 1,200
employees at its Canary Wharf office in London to work from home
until further notice after a visitor was diagnosed with the
coronavirus, the company said.
NEW CASES AT UNICREDIT
Italy's UniCredit raised the number of its workers
infected with coronavirus to three on Thursday and sent home
staff who dealt with them.
Unicredit said it had told all employees who have been in
contact with a contractor in its Munich office who has since
tested positive for the virus to self-quarantine for two weeks.
The bank has closed its Piacenza office, where another
employee has tested positive, and a branch in the northern
Italian city, Unicredit said in a statement.
It advised all employees who may have been in close contact
with the colleague to self-isolate for 14 days and said it would
contact all customers who had been in the Piacenza branch in
recent days.
Italy has been hit harder by the coronavirus than any other
country in Europe, with 107 deaths and more than 3,000 confirmed
cases.
(Additional reporting by Julien Ponthus, Julia Payne and
Carolyn Cohn in London and Gianluca Semeraro in Milan; Writing
by John O'Donnell; Editing by Rachel Armstrong, Timothy
Heritage, Alex Richardson and Jan Harvey)
Barclays (BARC)
