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Wall Street sticks with back to office plans as Delta variant sparks fears (Thu, 05 Aug 2021)
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Noor Zainab Hussain (Reuters) – Wall Street’s biggest banks are sticking by their decisions to make employees return to the office in the coming weeks even as public health officials around the globe warn about the aggressive nature of COVID-19’s Delta variant. The new variant is sparking new fears even among vaccinated lawyers and bankers and investment managers that they might be bringing home harm to unvaccinated children after a day at the office in Manhattan. “By making us come back to the office, you are essentially putting our families and children at risk,” said one person on a company-wide conference call where employees could ask questions and air potential grievances about returning to the office, according to another participant. After having hastily adapted to working remotely as the pandemic spread last year, many firms on Wall Street are ready to bring their staff back, if only for a portion of the week. For many that means a return to commuter trains and high-rise office buildings’ elevators starting next month. But now a new kind of fear is creeping in after many Wall Street executives heaved a sigh of relief following the ready availability in the United States of vaccines. “A lot of people are not commuting into the city right now and so the New York suburbs have become a new meeting place that never existed before but where you can efficiently arrange a lot of face to face meetings now,” said Jonathan Litt, whose hedge fund Land & Buildings Investment Management concentrates on real estate. “You drive 10 minutes, have lunch and then you go home,” Litt, whose hedge fund moved out of Manhattan to nearby Connecticut more than a decade ago, said. Some lawyers and bankers have told colleagues that they would not be returning to their Manhattan offices in the foreseeable future for fear of catching the highly transmissible new strain and carrying it home to children under the age of 12 who have not been cleared to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Several said the mood among many parents of young children has changed in the last two days, the latest twist in a saga that saw many of them flee their New York offices in March 2020 only to make a tentative return earlier this summer. The shift coincides with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s call on Tuesday that all people who wish to eat indoors at restaurants, exercise at gyms or see performances in New York must soon show that they have been vaccinated. “I thought we were past this and things were getting better, but they are clearly not,” said another executive, who like the half dozen contacted for this story asked not to be identified for fear of angering his employer. At the major banks, the policies, for now are to hold the course with some taking a harder stance on vaccines. Morgan Stanley’s staff and clients will not be allowed to enter the bank’s New York offices if they are not fully vaccinated, a source said. Goldman Sachs has had a vaccine status reporting requirement in place since June 10, a spokesperson said, adding that unvaccinated individuals are required to submit to regular, weekly testing and wear a mask. A spokesperson for Wells Fargo & Co said the bank had plans for a phased return to offices for its U.S. employees that would begin in September. “We are continuing to closely watch the data and will adjust as needed,” the spokesperson said. A banker at JPMorgan Chase & Co told Reuters “fear is rising”, but speculated the bank won’t make any changes after CEO Jamie Dimon was among the first senior executives to bring back his workforce. JPMorgan declined to comment on any changes to its back-to-office plans. The largest U.S. bank had said it will bring its employees in the United States back to the office on a rotational basis from July. (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Svea Herbst-Bayliss in New York; additional reporting by Niket Nishant; editing by Richard Pullin) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
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Biden to offer temporary ‘safe haven’ to Hong Kong residents in U.S. (Thu, 05 Aug 2021)
By Michael Martina WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Thursday plans to offer a temporary “safe haven” to thousands of Hong Kong residents, a senior administration official told Reuters, allowing them to extend their stay in the country in response to Beijing’s crackdown on democracy in the Chinese territory. President Joe Biden is expected to sign a memorandum directing the State and Homeland Security departments to grant Hong Kong residents in the United States an 18-month “deferral of removal,” the official said. The vast majority of Hong Kong residents in the United States are expected to be eligible, but there will be some legal conditions, the person said, calling it a “temporary safe haven.” “The PRC continues to wield the national security law to deny basic rights and freedoms, to assault Hong Kong’s autonomy, to undermine the remaining democratic processes in Hong Kong,” the source said on condition of anonymity, using the official acronym for China. “We will continue to take steps to support the people of Hong Kong given this ongoing repression,” the official said. The measure is the latest in a series of actions Biden has taken to address what his White House says is the erosion of rule of law in the former British colony, which returned to Beijing’s control in 1997. The U.S. government in July applied more sanctions on Chinese officials in Hong Kong, and issued an updated business advisory warning companies of risks of operating under the national security law, which China implemented last year to criminalize what it considers subversion, secessionism, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces. Critics say the law facilitates a crackdown on pro-democracy activists and a free press in the territory, which Beijing had agreed to allow to operate under considerable political autonomy for 50 years after it regained control. China retaliated against the U.S. actions last month with its own sanctions on U.S. individuals, including former U.S. commerce secretary Wilbur Ross. U.S. lawmakers have sought legislation that would make it easier for people from Hong Kong fearing persecution after joining protests against China to obtain U.S. refugee status, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the United States should accept people fleeing the Hong Kong crackdown. (Reporting by Michael Martina. Editing by Gerry Doyle) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
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Audio News – SRN News

SRN Hourly News 08-05-21 – 08:00 AM CDT (Thu, 05 Aug 2021)
Top News Stories Aug 05, 2021 – 08:00 AM CDT Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
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SRN Hourly News 08-05-21 – 07:00 AM CDT (Thu, 05 Aug 2021)
Top News Stories Aug 05, 2021 – 07:00 AM CDT Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
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