Citigroup, HSBC and Barclays are among the financial institutions planning to tell workers that a return to five days a week in the office is imminent.
Many banks introduced ways to monitor employees as they worked from home during the pandemic, while regulators relaxed rules around supervision. But the reinstatement of pre-pandemic rules and the costs of maintaining those systems are pushing some to require a return to full-time, in-person work, Bloomberg reported.
The decision comes as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the main steward of investment banking standards and ethics, is poised to reintroduce pre-pandemic rules around workplace monitoring.
Those rules are designed to ensure legal compliance and routine workplace inspections. But the cost of monitoring home offices may prove too high for some financial firms, potentially boosting office attendance in New York City and other financial hubs across the country.
Citigroup will require roughly 600 workers to commute into offices every day during the work week, although the majority of its employees will be able to remain on a hybrid schedule.