Truist Calls Investment Banking Staff to Office Five Days a Week

 Bloomberg:

Truist Financial Corp. told its investment-banking staff that they must now be in the office every weekday from June 1, in another sign that some pandemic-era flexible working arrangements are coming to an end.

The policy updates the current arrangement where Truist Securities staff go into the office four days a week, according to a spokesperson.

Across the bank, Truist will require staff working on a hybrid basis — which accounts for most of its workforce — to go into the office four days a week from fall onwards, the spokesperson said. They currently do three days.

As Truist prioritizes long term growth, the company’s “best work comes from being together,” the spokesperson said in an email, adding that “increasing in-person interactions allows us to reinvigorate a connected culture.”

Truist had about 50,000 employees overall at the end of last year. The bank’s Truist Securities investment-banking division has about 1,000, according to the spokesperson.

Wall Street firms, like companies throughout corporate America, have been rethinking their work-from-home rules after the Covid-19 pandemic receded. Banks like JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. were at the forefront of the early push to bring staff back to the office, though even technology giants that once promised long-term flexibility have become stricter with their policies.

Truist said last year it was embarking on sizable job cuts to help trim expenses — expecting those cuts to help the firm save about $300 million.

Assuming the rest all follow suit?