Citi Pulls Back on Plans for Office Return in 13 States
(Bloomberg) --
Citigroup Inc. is pulling back on plans for returning employees to offices across the U.S. as coronavirus cases surge in many states.
The bank will delay bringing back a small percentage of office workers in 13 states, including Texas, South Dakota, Idaho and Florida, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Citigroup is still planning to return about 5% of employees to offices in much of the U.S. Northeast, including New York, the person said.
“We have always said our plans to return to the office would prioritize the health and safety of our colleagues and be centered around data not dates,” Citigroup said in an emailed statement. “Consistent with that, we delayed our return to a number of sites across the U.S. given the health data in those locations.”
The changes come after infectious-disease expert Anthony Fauci told a Senate panel Tuesday that the U.S. is “going in the wrong direction” in its efforts to contain the novel coronavirus, and that new Covid-19 cases could more than double to 100,000 a day if behaviors don't change.
Several southern and western states are seeing surging numbers of new cases, prompting some to put reopening plans on hold. Hospitalizations have increased in 12 states, with Florida's Miami-Dade County reporting its highest numbers of hospitalizations, intensive-care unit patients and ventilator use in at least two months, and ICUs in Houston hitting 97% of normal capacity on Tuesday.
Read more: Fauci says U.S. risks 100,000 daily cases in dire warning
“None of the jobs need to be back right away,” Citigroup President Jane Fraser said at a Bloomberg conference last week. Employees “will largely decide for themselves whether they want to stay at home, how they feel about their commute, what's going to happen with childcare.”
Goldman Monitoring
JPMorgan Chase & Co. corporate workers in the New York metropolitan area will be going back to offices this month, with no more than 20% returning before the second week of September, the bank said in a memo last week. The bank also has made plans to bring back workers in Columbus, Ohio.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. brought back an initial group of employees to its major U.S. locations on June 22. In cities with large coronavirus outbreaks, Goldman is monitoring the situation as it begins to enact its office-return plan, a spokeswoman said. In the U.S., aside from its New York headquarters, the firm has large hubs in Utah and Texas.
Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Richard Handler said earlier this week that his traders and bankers are under no pressure to return anytime soon.
“I am in awe of how our people became a virtual firm within days of learning about Covid,” Handler said in a phone interview Monday. “Our people will work from home until they feel safe coming back.”
On Wednesday, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio postponed a planned reopening of indoor dining next week, citing the surge in coronavirus infections in other states. He said outdoor dining would continue in the city.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
-
Joining The Dots | Dark Skies, Steady Diya: Why Hope Holds This Diwali
With war, a weak rupee and foreign outflows weighing on sentiment, policymakers at the NDTV World Summit and market veterans at NDTV Profit Ignite: Diwali Edition offered the same advice: stay invested and filter out the noise.
-
The Curious Case of Equitas Small Finance Bank And A CEO Who Quit For Stock
PN Vasudevan believes persistent investor concerns over a perceived conflict of interest had become a governance overhang on Equitas Small Finance Bank's stock, even as the lender improved profitability and asset quality.
-
Talking Points This Week: AI Cash Burn, A Tiger Comeback And An India That Still Finds Its Own Path
India is not immune to higher oil or tighter global liquidity, yet its earnings base is broader, its domestic policy levers are still available.
-
Foreign Investors Own Half Of HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. An LTCG Cut Could Matter Most Here
Foreign portfolio investors have US$115 billion parked in HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank. If the government cuts long-term capital gains tax, Jefferies says returning foreign money could land here first.
