HSBC top staff to hot desk at London HQ as bank scraps executive floor

CEO Noel Quinn and other senior managers have been kicked out of their offices on the 42nd-floor.

HSBC Holdings Plc has scrapped the executive floor of its Canary Wharf headquarters in London and turned the private offices of its top staff into client meeting rooms and collaborative spaces.

Chief Executive Officer Noel Quinn and other senior managers have been kicked out of their offices on the 42nd-floor and will hot desk on an open-plan floor two storeys below, Quinn told the Financial Times in an interview. The offices were empty half of the time because senior staff were traveling around the world, which was a “waste of real estate,” he said.

Quinn told the newspaper that he