JP Morgan buys Dublin office block amid bank Brexit planning

JP Morgan has snapped up an office building in Dublin able to house 1,000 staff, in a sign the US banking giant intends to expand its European Union operations following Brexit.

The building, due to be completed next year, is at 200 Capital Dock in Dublin's docklands area, will house twice the number of staff the bank already employs in the City. The bank is understood to have paid $137m (£106m) for the prestigious block.

"This new building gives us room to grow and some flexibility within the European Union," said senior country officer for JP Morgan in Ireland Carin Bryans.

Ireland's financial services minister, Eoghan Murphy, said the bank's announcement was a vote of confidence in Dublin's status as a major financial centre.

The move comes as a number of international banks say they are preparing to move operations outside London, Europe's financial hub, on the expectations that some services will be easier to run within a European Union country once Brexit negotiations are concluded.

European cities such as Frankfurt, Paris, Madrid and Amsterdam are all fighting to eat away at London's financial dominance in Europe.

After Brexit the UK's financial services industry will lose its "passporting" rights, allowing businesses to operate smoothly throughout the EU, if Britain leaves the single market, which Prime Minister Theresa May has given as one of her key aims.

London-listed bank Standard Chartered has said it is talking to German regulators about making Frankfurt its European headquarters.

In April Deutsche Bank said it might move up to 4,000 jobs out of the UK as a result of Brexit, which would be nearly half its UK workforce.

Other financial services firms known to be looking at moving some staff out of London include the UK's Barclays, America's Goldman Sachs and the insurance market Lloyds of London.