Monitoring the situation: HSBC to add 46 CCTV cameras with ‘face detection’ outside new City HQ
Few banks are better at monitoring the situation than HSBC.
The UK’s biggest bank is gearing up to install dozens of CCTV cameras around the perimeter of its new City headquarters as it ramps up security ahead of its move from Canary Wharf next year.
HSBC plans to fit as many as 51 new cameras, of which 46 will be affixed to the outside of the building at 81 Newgate Street, and a further five within the public parts of the interior.
According to planning documents seen by the Capitalist, many of the cameras will feature “face detection” whereby “an alarm is triggered when a face is fully visible” as well as microphones and “enhanced visibility.”
The cameras will also feature “loitering detection” in which “an alarm is triggered when people remain in an area for too long.” City hacks hovering around outside in search of a scoop had better brace themselves.
A separate planning application was needed for the extensive surveillance because it was not envisaged in the building’s original design.
“It was not confirmed that 81 Newgate Street would become HSBC’s global headquarters” when planning applications for the building, the former home to BT, were initially sought in 2023, and “as a result, the level of security infrastructure now required was not included,” developers said.
And that’s just the exterior. Inside, things get even more extensive. Reuters reported last year that the bank plans a four-fold increase in the number of cameras inside its new building — more than 1700 — despite being half the size of Canary Wharf. Access to the building will be based on biometric verification, including full-hand recognition.
HSBC declined to comment.