Bankers in Hong Kong are returning to the office in increasingly greater numbers and banks are stepping up plans for staff to return to offices in London and other major financial hubs from next month.
The return to offices in Hong Kong is offering a useful guide of things to come in other parts of the world – although industry sources said other cities could take far longer to achieve a similar outcome.
Some banks already have up to 70% of their Hong Kong staff back in the office, although because of social distancing measures that require some desks to be kept unoccupied, most firms are still operating at 50% or below at their main worksites.
Both Morgan Stanley and UBS currently have around 50% of their staff back in their main offices and UBS aims to increase that to 60% in the next few weeks, sources said.
Citigroup has about 35% of its staff back in the main office, up from 25% two weeks ago. HSBC, which employs more than 20,000 people in Hong Kong, said 30% of its staff could return to the office as of last Monday.
NOT SO FAST
The picture is very different in London and New York, though. Barclays last week told staff more of them may be able to return to their main London headquarters from mid-June, sources said, following a slight easing in restrictions unveiled by the UK government.
But the bank's business units will assess whether there is a reason for staff to be in the office, and everyone else will continue to work from home. It will be determined by operational need where staff would be more effective in the office, and phased over a long period of time.
That would involve fewer than 700 staff in its Canary Wharf HQ, where 7,000 staff are based, one of the sources said.
Other banks, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and HSBC, have also stepped up assessing when staff can return in London, but sources said it is still just planning – any significant increase is weeks away and hinges on further government advice and how the rate of transmission of coronavirus develops.
They said the number to return at first will probably be less than a 10th of staff. That is due to social distancing requirements, a desire to limit pressure on London's transport infrastructure and the personal choices of employees.
Firms are also relaxed about the pace of return because working from home has proved so successful, the sources said.
Critical staff have been going into office or disaster recovery sites. They include some traders, compliance and support staff, but it has been far fewer than had been expected when the lockdown started – and probably only dozens of people, even at the big firms.
HK TEMPLATE
Still, banks can take some lead from Hong Kong.
Goldman brought more staff back on-site last week and now has about 35% working in the office. Goldman last month set out a "careful return to office strategy" in Asia that initially saw 25% of its Hong Kong workforce return to the office from April 27. It aims to have 50% back in offices in two weeks and will then pause before making further decisions.
Goldman has spaced out seating and limited face-to-face meetings to no more than four people and for no longer than 15 minutes. Staff in the office have to wear face masks, and the bank provided two surgical masks per day. There has also been temperature screening in offices.
Fitting staff in elevators is an unusual problem. Morgan Stanley is not alone in recalibrating its elevators in its main office in Kowloon to reduce the number of stops and the number of passengers allowed per lift.
Hong Kong has won plaudits globally for its handling of the coronavirus with just over 1,000 cases recorded, and its securities regulator has also been less prescriptive than other regulators on how banks handle staffing, bankers said.
In China, most bankers have been returning to the office for several weeks. UBS's head of China global markets, Thomas Fang, said 80% of staff were now back at its main site.
But the situation elsewhere in Asia is far different with banks in most offices in the region still operating with a skeleton staff as lockdown restrictions remain in place.
Singapore's regulator has asked essential financial services firms to operate with 10% of their staff at their main places of work, according to bankers, with banks responding by rotating essential staff between different weeks.
In India and Australia, almost all bankers are still working from home.
KITCHEN WORKERS
In Europe, Goldman staff have started returning slowly to offices in Stockholm and Frankfurt.
When banks do start reopening offices, they may implement previous plans to operate split trading teams and rotate weekly. Or staff may just use the office one or two days a week.
Bank chiefs have acknowledged the success of working from home is likely to have a long-term impact on how people operate. It could make expensive back-up infrastructure redundant and lead to major changes to working practices, including smaller head offices and routine working from home.
"It's an extraordinary thing that technology has allowed us to do to keep this bank so functioning, given the fact that 7,000 people are doing it from their kitchens," said Barclays CEO Jes Staley.
Other bankers agreed the world for bankers has changed.
"There will still be due diligence requirements when sponsoring an IPO, which can involve physically visiting the workplace of an issuer and its clients and that won’t go away," said Jan Metzger, Asia-Pacific head of banking, capital markets and advisory at Citigroup. "But a lot of the roadshows that are currently being done as videoconferences will continue in that format.”
And it could open up opportunities.
One executive in Asia told IFR he recently received a request from a junior banker to pay his rent since he argued his home now qualified as his main place of work, at least temporarily, under SFC guidelines. The request was turned down.