JPMorgan Wants Trading, Sales Teams To Return To The Office

It’s time to return to the office.

That’s the message J.P.Morgan Chase & Co. executives gave the bank’s senior staff in its sales and trading divisions, sources told The Wall Street Journal.

Marc Badrichani, the bank’s head of sales and research, and Trading Chief Troy Rohrbaugh delivered the announcement in conference calls on Wednesday (Sept. 9). The employees were told to report to their Madison Avenue offices on Sept. 21, according to sources.

Badrichani and Rohrbaugh reportedly said that employees who have daycare issues or medical problems that make them vulnerable to COVID-19 can continue to work remotely.

The executives also told employees that if the senior staff remained at home full-time, junior staffers wouldn’t get the training they need to succeed, sources told the WSJ.

To ease the return for a nervous workforce, Chase implemented a mandatory training program to define office rules, the sources said.

J.P.Morgan appears to be an outlier. While New York City began to reopen in June, financial services companies largely haven’t required employees to return.

In mid-March, a coronavirus outbreak infected more than a dozen people on the company’s fifth-floor offices. Now, by reopening the trading floor, J.P.Morgan is signaling to employees and competitors that it’s okay to return.

In July, CNBC reported that J.P.Morgan posted a record $33.8 billion in second-quarter revenue, helping it earn a better-than-expected $4.69 billion profit for the period. But the bank’s retail banking division posted a $176 million loss, compared with a $4.2 billion profit a year earlier. The firm’s commercial bank had a similar story with a $691 million loss, compared with a $1 billion profit a year earlier.

Earlier this year, Wall Street banks prepared for a possible work-from-home requirement as they talked to regulators about waiving rules regarding brokers working remotely. The rule change allowed thousands of daily traders to work from home.

Kenneth Bentsen Jr., CEO of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, spearheaded the industry’s response to the outbreak. His organization talked to regulators about how companies could meet compliance rules if trading staff aren’t working from a place where there is plenty of oversight.