U.S. investment banks scout Frankfurt office space market: Helaba

[March 23, 2017]  FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Several U.S. investment banks are scouting the market for available Frankfurt office space to shift parts of their business from London, the real estate executive of a large German bank said on Thursday.

Several concrete requests for vacant office space have been logged, Juergen Fenk real estate executive at German lender Helaba said at the bank's annual press conference.

The European Central Bank expects London-based banks to seek ways to retain access to the European Union's single market after Britain leaves the common trading bloc, the ECB's top supervisor said on Thursday.

Hubertus Vaeth, who heads lobby group Frankfurt Main Finance, last month said he was confident that of the five leading U.S. investment banks, three will move some operations to Germany next year.

According to financial sources in Frankfurt, Citi <C.N>, Goldman Sachs <GS.N> and Morgan Stanley <MS.N> are on the lookout for office space in Germany's financial center.

(Reporting by Andreas Kroener; Writing by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Edward Taylor)

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