Deutsche Bank Said to Shrink London Office Space After Job Cuts

(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG plans to move some workers from a City of London office building to the Canary Wharf district and sublease the excess space, according to two people familiar with the plan.

The lender will shift at least half of the back-office staff from the Appold Street property to the Docklands office by the end of this year, the people said, asking not to be identified because the plan is private. The bank currently has about 2,000 desks in the building, one of the people said.

The decision to move workers is additional to an earlier plan that involved relocating workers from several London offices to Canary Wharf. A spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

Banks were shrinking in London’s main financial districts even before the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union as they cut staff in a bid to reduce costs. The bank’s current business plan includes eliminating about 9,000 employee jobs globally from 2015 through 2018, a 9 percent reduction. Deutsche Bank will be “more ambitious in headcount reduction,” Chief Executive Officer John Cryan said on an analyst call last month.

The lender last year extended its lease on the Appold Street building until 2023. Banks including Barclays Plc and Citigroup Inc. are also seeking to sublet in London.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Sidders in London at jsidders@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Neil Callanan at ncallanan@bloomberg.net, Andrew Blackman