Banks are adapting to new work-from-home regulations, with some opting to mandate five-day office attendance rather than comply with home inspection requirements.
During the pandemic, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) suspended workplace inspection rules to facilitate remote work. However, now that the agency is set to move back to its pre-pandemic requirements for monitoring workplaces, certain home offices will need registration and remote inspections every three years under a new pilot program.
However, some of the banks that have been the most flexible in terms of remote work arraignment (like Citigroup, Barclays, and HSBC) have decided that complying with the recent policies would require too much effort. The three banks are bringing back their thousands of employees to the office for five days a week.
Citigroup said on Thursday that it will require its 600 employees, who were previously working from home, to come into the office five days a week. Similarly, Barclays cited “new regulatory policies” as the main reason why thousands of its investment banking employees would be back to five days a week in-person.
Michael Roberts, HSBC CEO of the US and Americas, told Bloomberg that the bank would follow the FINRA regulations, but it was in their plans to have employees return to the office.
“What we did not want to do is to force people to come back simply out of decree,” – Michael Roberts
