Goldman Sachs told its Paris staff they could work remotely on Thursday following a foiled bomb attack on Bank of America Paris offices last Saturday, a source familiar with the matter said, while Citigroup staff in Paris and Frankfurt are also working remotely.
French authorities have placed four suspects in pre-trial detention over the plot.
The Paris police authority did not immediately reply to a request seeking comment, while the Paris prosecutor’s office declined to comment.
Citigroup’s is a precautionary measure, the group said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
French anti-terrorism prosecutors said late on Wednesday the four suspects — three teenagers aged 16 and 17 and one adult — were placed under formal investigation on suspicion of manufacturing, transporting and handling an explosive device and attempting to destroy property as part of a terrorist organisation.
The device, a five-litre petrol can taped to a large pyrotechnic charge containing a 650-gram active-material cylinder, was the most powerful of its kind ever identified in France and could have generated “a powerful fireball several meters in diameter,” the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said late on Wednesday.
Investigators established the adult recruited the teenagers, paying them between 500 and 1,000 euros ($580-$1,160) to plant and film the device. All four denied terrorist intent.