UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti added his voice to a chorus of finance executives concerned about having so many employees working remotely.
It’s especially difficult for banks to create and sustain cohesiveness and a culture when employees stay at home, he said at a Bank of America conference on Tuesday. A rate of 85% of people working remotely is “not sustainable” for banks and a normal level for UBS should be about 20% to 30% at any time.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said last week that he sees
While some big Wall Street firms are seeking to get staff back to the office, there are already signs of how challenging that could be. JPMorgan
Europe is no different. Traders at Barclays’s London headquarters were sent home at the start of this month after two employees tested positive for coronavirus, according to Financial News. Staff who had interacted with the pair were sent home to quarantine for 14 days, it said, citing a Sept. 2 memo. Barclays declined to comment.
While some industry employees are eager for the normalcy of their offices, others are more reluctant as experts predict another rise in virus cases.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson encouraged office workers to stay home when possible. Johnson on Tuesday tightened the U.K.’s coronavirus restrictions and warned Britons the new rules are likely to be in place for six months, as the government tries to stamp out a resurgence of the disease.
UBS employs just short of 70,000 people in 50 countries and had 80% of its worldwide staff at home during the height of the pandemic. COO Sabine Keller-Busse said earlier this year that as many as a third of its employees could work remotely on a permanent basis.
