Banking on Birmingham's future

March 11, 2016

Banking on Birmingham's future

Just under one year ago HSBC announced that it was moving its headquarters for a new ringfenced UK retail and commercial banking business to Birmingham, http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/mar/24/hsbc-to-base-ringfenced-retail-banking-operation-in-birmingham, relocating 1,000 jobs to the city.

The move is something of a homecoming for the bank which was founded in 1836 as the Birmingham and Midland Bank.

Founded in 1836 as the Birmingham and Midland Bank, it had expanded to become the largest lender in the world during the first half of the 20th century, with an empire that came to include the Thomas Cook travel agency, before financial difficulties forced a sale to HSBC.http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/mar/24/hsbc-to-base-ringfenced-retail-banking-operation-in-birmingham

The new UK banking business will retain the HSBC brand but add UK to distinguish it and one of the first branches to see this new name is the Birmingham New Street branch which is opposite a former Midland Bank branch.

HSBC said that, following a consultation process with retail, private and commercial banking customers and customer-facing staff, the decision was made to keep the HSBC brand and add 'UK' to distinguish the ring-fenced bank from the non-ring-fenced bank.http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/business/commercial-property/work-starts-new-hsbc-home-10005063

The photo below shows the new signage, shortly after being installed, with the former Midland Bank building on the right, opposite, which is now to become an Apple store.

The move to Birmingham is the largest property deal to take place in Birmingham since 2002 and HSBC has acquired 2 Arena Central, it's new address, on a 250 year lease. The 210,000 sq ft building has been designed by architect Ken Shuttleworth of Make Architects and will be ten storeys high, including three storey's below ground. The building is due to be completed and handed over to HSBC in mid-2017 ready for occupation from early 2018, http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/business/commercial-property/work-starts-new-hsbc-home-10005063.

The following images show what the building will look like.

Spades entered the ground in September 2015 and there has been rapid work on the challenging site, near to a railway tunnel. The photos below show progress on the development viewed from a number of different views.

8th March