Standard Chartered to Offload Office Space in Singapore

Standard Chartered bank is reportedly considering slashing office space in the Singapore business district, where it occupies 21 floors at Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 1.

While plans are under discussion and subject to change, sources told «Bloomberg» that the bank is weighing several options, including cutting 80,000 square feet, or four floors of offices.

Another option is to shed half of the 420,000 square feet it currently occupies or retaining just four floors – the minimum required for the bank to keep its logo on the building’s facade, the report said.

The downsizing follows similar moves in Hong Kong, where it is giving up the lease on eight floors of its Standard Chartered Bank Building in the central business district, and renting out three floors it owns from its offices in the industrial district of Kwun Tong.

The move also falls in line with the bank’s plans to permanently offer flexible work options to around 90 percent of its 85,000 employees around the world by 2023. Some 80 percent of its employees in Singapore currently work from home, the bank said.

Standard Chartered is planning to optimize the use of its office space by and cater to the wellness of its staff by providing amenities such as gyms, according to the report. A large number of staff also work out of a facility at Changi Business Park, where it opened a learning hub in December 2020 to boost its workforce.

Other banks that have permanently shed space in Singapore include DBS, which will give up 75,000 square feet of space – about two and a half floors out of the more than a dozen floors it occupies at Tower 3 of the Marina Bay Financial Centre; Citi, which is offloading three floors; and Mizuho, which is cutting less than one floor of office space.