The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) has announced new rules for supervising work at home, which are set to take effect on June 1, 2024. These rules will require brokerages to list some home offices in regulatory records and set up regimes for certain home offices to satisfy requirements for periodic workplace inspections. The new regulations have prompted some Wall Street firms, including Barclays, Citigroup, HSBC, and Truist Financial Corp., to consider requiring some staff to work in the office five days a week.
Barclays is among the firms weighing whether to require scores of workers to commute to company offices full-time due to the new US brokerage regulations. The bank's executives have been examining Finra's requirements and expect that the firm can remain compliant with very limited impact on its work-from-home protocols. However, other firms might conclude that the additional compliance hurdles aren't worth it and summon affected employees back full time.
Truist Financial Corp. has already announced a similar five-day policy that will soon impact some of its Wall Street staff, while Citigroup requires about 600 US employees previously eligible to work remotely to commute to company offices full-time. HSBC also requires more staff to work in offices five days a week.
The new rules are designed to provide flexibility for remote work, but firms might decide that the additional compliance hurdles aren't worth it and summon affected employees back full time. The transition has turned out to be far more complex than initially imagined, leaving compliance officials feeling somewhat rattled as they scramble to meet the implementation deadlines.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's (Finra) pandemic-era reprieve on in-person inspection requirements for branch offices expires on May 31, 2024. Finra's new rule for residential supervisory locations takes effect on June 1, requiring brokerages to list some home offices in regulatory records and setting up regimes for certain home offices to satisfy requirements for periodic workplace inspections.
Compliance officials are feeling rattled as they scramble to meet the implementation deadlines. The transition has turned out to be far more complex than initially imagined. While such rules are designed to provide flexibility for remote work, some firms might conclude that the additional compliance hurdles aren't worth it and summon affected employees back full time.
Not all firms may reach the same conclusion, as executives at Deutsche Bank AG have been examining Finra's requirements and expect that the firm can remain compliant with very limited impact on its work-from-home protocols. Representatives for Barclays and Deutsche Bank declined to comment, while a Finra spokesperson had no immediate comment on what office policies firms might enact as they adjust to the changes.
The majority of financial firms still let workers log on remotely at least part of the week. A survey in early 2023 showed that only 20% of financial-services companies required full-time office attendance. But since then, firms have taken more steps to tighten up their rules.
Last month, Truist told its investment-banking staff that they must work from the office every weekday from June 1. The bank will require other people commuting on a hybrid basis - most of its workforce - to go into the office four days a week starting later this year. The company's 'best work comes from being together,' a spokesperson said at the time.
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