Deutsche Bank picks new London headquarters signalling confidence in post-Brexit UK

Deutsche Bank will move its current London headquarters, as per an internal staff memo. The new building, however, is not outside the country, but within the UK capital, signalling a vote of confidence in the country post Bexit.

The move comes as a breather to the country as it follows several banks announcing plans to move jobs away from London amid Brexit. Earlier this week, Richard Gnodde, the CEO of Goldman Sachs International said it will relocate hundreds of jobs away from London before the UK and the European Union agree on any Brexit deal.

Deutsche Bank is said to be committed to the UK Capital. The memo sent by the bank's UK CEO Garth Ritchie was cited by Reuters as saying, "The move underlines the bank's commitment to the City of London and the importance it attaches to being an employer of choice in the capital."

The new headquarters, which is yet to be constructed, will be at 21 Moorfields.

The German bank has entered into a 25-year lease for the new headquarters. It will however start moving its staff there only in the second half of 2023.

While it has 9,000 employees in the UK, a majority 7,000 of them are spread across 15 buildings in London. The current move would see many of them work together under one roof, leading to a decline in the bank's building office count.

"The site will provide a long-term, sustainable location for the Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB) and infrastructure colleagues who need to be situated alongside CIB. Locating these staff in one building will increase productivity and strengthen controls and communication between functions," he explained in the memo.

The move comes at a time when several of Deutsche Banks' leases in London are set to expire over the next few years. While its lease on the Willis Building skyscraper is set to expire in 2021, that of the Great Winchester Street, is said to expire in 2023.

The German bank is not the only one moving headquarters within the city. According to the Financial Times, Société Générale is preparing to move to its new Canary Wharf headquarters in 2019, while Japan's Mizuho Bank is said to have taken a new building just outside the City last summer.