Deutsche Bank’s US investment bankers set to return to offices by September

Deutsche Bank has told US investment bankers that it expects them back in the company's offices by early September.

"We are encouraged to see the rapid increase of in-person client meetings and that so many of you have resumed working from a DB office some or all of the working week," Drew Goldman, head of investment banking coverage and advisory, and James Davies, head of the international client group and US investment bank, said on Wednesday in a memo seen by Bloomberg.

“Given it is important that you are able to plan for the remainder of the year, please plan for all our teams to resume operating from the office no later than Labour Day.”

Deutsche Bank joins companies including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan in asking employees to prepare to return in coming weeks.

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Citigroup, meanwhile, has taken a cautious approach to bringing back workers, with plans to open up physical locations to just 30 per cent of employees in July and a broader return later in the year.

Generally, Deutsche Bank is still working through how much flexibility it will offer employees over the long term, according to a separate memo earlier this week from investment-banking chief Mark Fedorcik and Ram Nayak, who oversees fixed income and currency sales and trading.

For now the firm is planning to ask its so-called risk-takers – which it defines as those “most involved in committing the firm’s capital and undertaking a significant volume of transactions” – to be in the office full-time. Client-facing bankers, on the other hand, will probably be able to work remotely one day a week, while workers in supporting roles can expect “a level of remote working” to likely be available.

Balance

“There is a need to balance a more flexible working environment with the clear need for robust, sustainable controls and in-person collaboration with colleagues and clients,” Fedorcik and Nayak said in the memo.

“The variety of roles we have in the investment bank is such that no single approach could accommodate the full breadth of risk profiles, supervision requirements and connectivity needs in our division.”

The push to bring more workers back comes as Deutsche Bank prepares to invite most summer interns to its offices in coming weeks.

“The immediate priority continues to be a safe and structured return to the office when circumstances permit, starting with our incoming interns, the majority of whom have elected to work from the office this summer where that is permitted,” Fedorcik and Nayak said.– Bloomberg