Brokers, asset managers and stock exchanges in Lujiazui – China’s response on Wall Street – rushed to call key staff in the offices before Monday’s lockdown in Shanghai and set up sleeping bags and basic overnight supplies. Some have also taken turns in two groups and set up disaster recovery centers at a financial hub that handled more than 2,500 trillion yuan ($ 292 trillion) in financial transactions last year. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register The 20,000 people working in 285 office towers in Pudong’s Lujiazui’s financial city, east of the Huangpu River, include workers and some service personnel, according to the district administration office, which also houses some non-financial institutions. Shanghai, home to 26 million people, launched a lockdown on Monday dividing the city along the Huangpu River to allow for tiered tests. Shanghai houses China’s largest markets for equities, bonds, foreign exchange and derivatives. read more Amundi BOC Wealth Management Co said its senior executives, as well as key investment, commercial and risk management staff, work and sleep in their offices to ensure the smooth running of the business. Meanwhile, Haitong Securities Co. (600837.SS) said President Zhou Jie arranged emergency on-site shifts at its subsidiaries in Pudong on Sunday night and led more than 150 key employees to work in offices as of Monday. The brokerage firm also began rotating two teams between its two offices, it said on its official website. HFT Investment Management, the Chinese fund of BNP Paribas, also put 52 key employees in offices around the clock during the lockdown period. Elsewhere, Sinolink Securities (600109.SS) issued a warning Sunday night urging staff to return to their Pudong headquarters before midnight to “ensure the continuity of the system and transactions,” the company said in a statement. Chinese stock company. Website. A Shanghai foreign bank official, who declined to be named, said his bank is in hybrid mode, with some staff working and sleeping in a back office in Puxi, on the west side of town, while others live in a trading hall in Pudong. A source at another foreign bank said the lender had been using disaster recovery centers for more than a week, a practice that will continue. Officials declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The Shanghai Stock Exchange told Reuters it had kept minimal staff groups in key positions within the stock market, while others were working from home in a deal designed to minimize human contact while ensuring trading security. (Corrects typographical error in paragraph 6 of Amundi BOC Wealth Management Co) Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Samuel Shen, Winni Zhou and Andrew Galbraith. Edited by Kenneth Maxwell Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
