Reluctant to cancel what have become pipelines for developing talent, banks are delaying start dates or moving programs entirely online.

The change — effective immediately — will reduce capital demands by about 2% overall, the Fed estimated, and will be open for a 45-day comment period.

Thousands of bankers are set for a reprieve as Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley joined European lenders in pledging to preserve jobs amid the widespread impact of the coronavirus.

JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and U.S. Bancorp, along with 200 state-chartered banks and credit unions, have agreed to let borrowers skip payments for 90 days if their finances have been upended by the pandemic.

It joins a growing list of banks temporarily shuttering branches as the novel coronavirus continues to spread across the country and more Americans stay home. Meanwhile, Citi and rival Wells Fargo became the latest banks to announce plans to pay bonuses to front-line employees.

Citi is beefing up leadership in its consumer card lending operations by recruiting Chase exec Pam Habner — credited with engineering the success of Chase’s Sapphire Reserve card — and former Citi exec Chris Fred, who will return after several months of working at Goldman Sachs on Apple Card products.

JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup told employees if they can work from home to begin doing so this week, escalating efforts to prevent the deadly coronavirus from spreading among staff.

The banks — including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup — agreed to stop buying back their own shares through the second quarter, saying they will focus on supporting clients and the nation during the coronavirus pandemic.

The biggest U.S. banks are once again preparing to show how they'll be able to withstand a severe economic shock in a hypothetical doomsday scenario, and they're eager to get on with it as a real one unfolds.

HSBC sounded out former Citigroup banker James Forese to gauge his interest in the chief executive officer's post, at least the third high-profile outside financier to be approached.