Global financial firms have begun evacuating their offices in war-hit countries of West Asia after Iran threatened to attack financial assets of the United States and Israel present in the region.
So far, Citigroup, Standard Chartered, HSBC and Goldman Sachs have directed their employees to work from home amid the looming threat of attacks.
The New York-headquartered Citigroup and London-based Standard Chartered have started evacuating their Dubai offices, according to a report by Reuters.
The institutions have directed their employees to work from home. According to the report, the US financial giant Citigroup in a memo asked its staff to evacuate offices in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and Dubai's Oud Metha neighbourhood.
A spokesperson for the bank said
The bank assured that it had contingency plans in place to ensure business continuity. It was continuing to take measures to keep staff safe, a spokesperson of the bank was quoted as saying.
Dubai is a major financial hub for leading international financial institutions such as JPMorgan and HSBC. The city also hosts several law firms and asset managers.
However, the United States-Israel-Iran war has disrupted business in the city as the United Arab Emirates has also come under attack from Iran.
Iran on Wednesday said that one of its banks was attacked in Tehran. It said that an administrative building of Bank Sepah, one of Iran’s largest public banks and with historical links to the military, was hit overnight.
In response to this, a spokesperson for Tehran’s Khatam al-Anbiya military command headquarters said that Iran will target economic and banking interests linked to the US and Israel in the region.
The warning has also prompted HSBC to close all its branches in Qatar in order to ensure the safety of staff and customers, the bank said.
The Iran war has put Dubai’s safe haven status at stake. The Dubai International Financial Centre currently hosts more than 290 banks, 102 hedge funds, 500 wealth management firms and 1,289 family-related entities.
