Shanghai issues return-to-office rule for bankers as virus eases

SHANGHAI issued detailed rules for financial companies in the city's Pudong district to resume operations after signs that a major Covid-19 outbreak has been put under control.

Under the rules, employees returning to work must not exceed 40 per cent of total staff of a financial institution, the official Shanghai Securities News reported, citing the Pudong financial authority at a virtual meeting held on Thursday (May 19) evening.

Workers will be allowed to return in batches, and in principle each batch shall not exceed 20 per cent of a company's total number of employees, it added. Financial institutions should resume work and production under closed-loop arrangements and in strict accordance with relevant epidemic prevention requirements.

Shanghai, the epicentre of China's worst outbreak since the early days of the pandemic, is gradually unwinding a punishing lockdown that confined its 25 million people to their compounds for weeks. Home to more than 1,600 banks and asset managers as well as one-quarter of China's expatriate population, the city's plight battered its image and raised doubts over its ambitions as a global financial centre.

A total of 864 financial entities, including the city's foreign exchange, stock and futures bourses, are allowed to resume on-site operations, according to a white list notice dated on Tuesday. State banks including Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. as well as the China offices of HSBC Holdings, JPMorgan Chase and Fidelity International are among the first batch.

According to the rules unveiled on Thursday night, financial institutions applying for a "work resumption certificate" shall be on the white list and the list of financial institutions will be approved and published in batches, Shanghai Securities News said.

If a company needs to increase the number of people returning to work for particular reasons, special approval is required, it added. BLOOMBERG