The biggest banks in the world are planning to reopen their offices, due to the vaccination drives and falling of the Covid cases. The COVID Delta variant’s spread is making many firms to rethink their back-to-office plans. But many of Wall Street’s biggest banks are planning to reopen
Here is the state of play plans of many regions,
UNITED STATES
Wells Fargo & Co has pushed back its U.S. return-to-office date to Oct. 18. The Goldman Sachs Group Inc is planning to bring U.S. employees back to the office by mid-June. JPMorgan Chase & Co, which is the largest U.S. bank has brought back employees on a rotational basis from July. Citigroup is expecting vaccinated employees in New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and D.C. to start working from office for at least two days a week from Sept. 13. Morgan Stanley’s chief executive officer, James Gorman, said that he will be disappointed if most employees don’t come back by September. Bank of America Corp is planning to allow only vaccinated staff.
UNITED KINGDOM
Barclays CEO Jes Staley said that the bank will adopt a hybrid working model by reducing its real estate footprint but maintain its main offices in London and New York. HSBC Holdings has adopted a new hybrid working model, with a 10% reduction in its global real estate footprint since the start of 2020. They also said that it is planning to cut its global office footprint by around 40%. Lloyds Banking Group which is the Britain’s biggest domestic bank, is now expecting three ways of working – at home, in the office, or a combination of the two, from October. Standard Chartered said that it will make permanent the flexible working arrangements. NatWest CEO Alison Rose has said the bank is likely to adopt a hybrid working model.
GERMANY
Deutsche Bank in London had plans to bring more staff back from June 21. Germany’s largest lender has also told its U.S. investment bankers that it is expecting to resume working from office. The bank earlier had said that it was following a regional approach to the pandemic.
SWITZERLAND
Credit Suisse in July 2020 had launched a global program, that evaluates various work-from-home options. It has been monitoring work arrangements since launching work-from-home. UBS Chairman Axel Weber had stated that flexibility would remain part of work arrangements at Switzerland’s biggest bank. Return-to-office plans vary from region to region.
CANADA
The central bank will allow most of its staff to remotely clock in as much as half of their working hours. After summer they are planning to bring back many people. But it is on a major doubt. Royal Bank of Canada, which is the largest lender, is exploring a flexible and hybrid work arrangement to bring its employees, according to its Chief Executive Officer David McKay said. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is planning to begin a phased return to office starting this fall.
