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Workforce management

What banks are doing about workers returning to the office

ByNathan Place, Colin McNamara
June 24, 2025 3:00 PM
Adobe Stock

It's never easy to turn back the clock on a national trend. But when it comes to remote work, banks have fought hard to do just that.

Since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, more lenders have called their workers back to the office. The shift has marked a major reversal, coming after several years in which remote or hybrid work was widespread. By 2024, 73% of financial service firms were operating on an at least partly work-from-home basis, according to Arizent research.

In 2025, banks have done their best to put the genie back in the bottle. In January, JPMorganChase said it was requiring almost all its employees to work at the office five days a week. Goldman Sachs has quietly stuck to its guns on the same policy, which it implemented back in 2021. Other banks have taken less maximalist approaches, but only a few still allow their workers to work from home most weekdays.

"There's been a gradual movement back, because I think the pendulum probably swung too far," Alan Johnson, president of the consulting firm Johnson Associates, told American Banker in January.

But this counterrevolution has been inconsistent. Each bank has its own culture and has set its own expectations for how often its employees — and which ones — must return to the office. Here are the policies at 12 of the world's biggest banks.

Ally

Ally Financial
Adobe Stock
As an online-only bank, Ally takes a flexible approach to working remotely or in-office. The company designates each role as fully on-site, hybrid or fully remote. Most employees fall into the hybrid category, working an average of three days per week at the office. 

Bank of America

Bank of America
Bloomberg
BofA takes a nuanced approach to RTO: Client-facing employees must come into the office for all five weekdays, while the minimum for everyone else is three days a week.

Bank of New York Mellon

BNY Mellon
Bloomberg
At America's oldest bank, the policy on hybrid work is still evolving. In January, BNY called its managers back to the office four days a week, and starting Sept. 2, all other employees will be subject to the same four-weekday requirement. But as a perk, the bank grants all workers two weeks per year of "work from anywhere" time.

Citibank

Citi hires Frankel Bloomberg pickup for weekly roundup
Bloomberg
Most Citi employees can work from home up to two days a week, but the bank sets a firm minimum of three weekdays in the office. However, according to an internal memo leaked to Business Insider, Citi is also giving most of its workers the option to work remotely for any two weeks of August this year.

Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs
Bloomberg
The New York investment bank adopted a strict RTO policy in June 2021, requiring all employees to work in the office five days a week. 

HSBC

HSBC
Bloomberg
The rules at the U.K.'s largest bank are in flux. Until now, HSBC has allowed managers to set the in-office policy for their own staff. But according to Bloomberg, the bank has been considering a new three-days-a-week requirement for all employees.

The problem is HSBC doesn't have enough desks to pull that off. At its offices in England, India and China, Bloomberg calculated, the bank would need a total of 17,200 additional desks to accommodate all the newly returned workers. HSBC has reportedly not yet reached a decision.

JPMorganChase

JPMorgan Chase 2022
Bloomberg
America's largest bank is all-in on return-to-office. With few exceptions, all employees must work on-site Monday through Friday. The new policy was announced in January this year and took effect in March.

In the interim, CEO Jamie Dimon ranted about remote work during a town-hall meeting at the bank that went viral.

Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley
Bloomberg
Morgan Stanley has held a strict line on working in-office. In 2022, the megabank set a 90-day-per-year cap on remote work for its brokers, without exceptions. At the firm's wealth management division, employees must be in the office at least four days per week.

PNC Financial Services

PNC Bank
Bloomberg
The Pittsburgh-based bank allows its managers to offer remote flexibility for employees but said last year that it would implement a three-day-a-week RTO policy for its Business Technology & Innovation unit, an increase from two days per week. 

USAA

USAA building
Adobe Stock
The San Antonio-based company, which sells both insurance and banking products, offers a somewhat flexible policy on in-office work. USAA requires most employees to work in-person four days a week, but it makes exceptions for workers who live beyond a commutable distance from one of its offices. Those employees are allowed to work fully from home.

U.S. Bank

U.S. Bank
Adobe Stock
At U.S. Bank, all employees in the megabank's more than 20 hub markets must work at the office three days a week. The Minneapolis-based bank, the fifth largest in the U.S., adopted the policy in late 2022.

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo Advisors
Bloomberg
The San Francisco-based megabank was an early adopter of the return to office. Since 2022, most senior leaders and customer-facing employees have been required to work on-site four or five days per week. For all other workers, the minimum is three weekdays.
Nathan Place
National Reporter, American Banker
Colin McNamara
Workforce management Work from home COVID-19 JPMorgan Chase Bank of America Citigroup Workplace
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