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JPMorgan’s new Manhattan HQ features biometric scanners upon entry and circadian lighting.
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The $3 billion project aims to enhance work efficiency and employee satisfaction.
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CEO Jamie Dimon has called the bank’s workers back to the office five days a week.
JPMorgan has always been big on tech — an initiative on full display at its new Manhattan headquarters.
America’s biggest bank by assets has been promising that its new office tower at 270 Park Avenue will be loaded with “intelligent technology” since it announced the project in 2022. New details of the $3 billion project obtained by Business Insider reveal just how tech-forward the building will be.
The 14,000 employees who will be housed at the New York tower will be able to activate coffee machines using QR codes and swipe into the building using biometric palm scanners. Want to preorder food from the dining hall, host a guest, or find a specific conference room? There’s an app for that, which JPMorgan is asking employees to download to “boost your work efficiency.”
The details, gleaned from internal communications shared with Business Insider, offer a glimpse of what it’s like to work at the bank behemoth, which earlier this year called back all of its more than 300,000 employees to the office five days a week. JPMorgan has also been spending billions on tech at the direction of CEO Jamie Dimon, who has been seeking to protect the bank from payment apps and other financial startups.
“We have to compete with the best in AI and technology,” Jamie Dimon said at the bank’s 2024 Investor Day.
With some employees’ move-in set to start this year and continue into 2026, here’s the lowdown on how the bank plans to use tech to keep workers happy and efficient as it calls them back to the office five days a week.
Even the way you enter the building will be leveled up using tech. One option to get past the turnstiles — besides your physical or mobile JPM badge — is “biometric authentication,” which employees can already enroll in, according to employee communications shared on an internal bank portal.
The bank showed a photo of a scanner that reads your palm. It said the biometric authentication will allow employees to “breeze from the lobby” to other parts of the building “by waving your hand!”
It touted how easy it will be to get where you want to go.
“After passing through the turnstiles, you can take an elevator to The Exchange on 14. From there, you can go up to your floor or take the escalator down to 13 for a bite to eat,” the bank said, adding, “If you’re a trader, you can take an elevator directly to the trading floors from the lobby.”
