Bank of America CEO Says Staff’s Return to Office May Pick Up in September

(Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp.’s offices may start to look more normal in September.

The lender is encouraging employees to get vaccinated and allowing some locations to reopen if half of staff there are inoculated, Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. Meeting in person is important for workforce learning and camaraderie, and it also helps to support city economies, he said.

“We’re a work-from-office company because the productivity and the culture and the mentoring that can take place is just better,” particularly for junior staffers, Moynihan said. “My big expectation is after Labor Day we’ll back to generally moving toward being back to normal, between now and then it’ll be partial,” he said, referring to the U.S. holiday on Sept. 6.

Employees may eventually have more flexibility, potentially choosing whether to commute to local offices or major hubs.

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“We have to think about our real estate configuration and retool it,” Moynihan said. “Ten years ago, we had 130 million square feet of real estate for Bank of America -- today we have about 70 million. We can just keep making that real estate more efficient.”

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