JPMorgan Chase has told staff moving into the US bank's new multibillion-dollar Manhattan headquarters they must share their biometric data to access the building, overriding a prior plan for voluntary enrolment. 

Employees who have started work at its 270 Park Avenue skyscraper since August have received emails saying biometric access is "required", according to a communication seen by the Financial Times. This allows people to scan their fingerprints or eye instead of ID badges to get through the lobby security gates. 

JPMorgan declined to comment. The bank's headquarters, which cost a reported $3bn, will eventually house about 10,000 employees once it is fully open later this year. 

The goal is to make access to the building more secure and convenient. There are exemptions for some employees who can still use their badge to enter the building, though it was not clear who would receive them. 

It comes amid heightened security concerns across corporate offices in New York following a deadly shooting at 345 Park Avenue in July, a few blocks up the street from JPMorgan's offices. 

Dave Komendat, chief security officer at Corporate Security Advisors, said biometrics had been used for decades at higher-security areas, such as government installations and data centres, but putting them in commercial buildings for large numbers of people would be used at a new and larger scale.

"It's a very effective way to make sure that the people entering your facility are exactly who they're supposed to be," said Komendat, who previously was a security executive at Boeing.

The 60 storey, 2.5mn sq ft steel and glass building towers over its neighbours, and chief executive Jamie Dimon has described it as a "beautiful physical manifestation" of his company. Employees past and present talk about 270 Park as a "monument" to Dimon's time as CEO.