Bank of America is asking employees to voluntarily disclose vaccine status, as Wall Street looks to get staffers back in the office

• Bank of America is asking staff to voluntarily disclose their vaccine status, a spokesperson said.
• Some 7,000 employees within the wealth management unit have already disclosed, a source said.
• CEO Brian Moynihan has said he expects “a more normal operating posture” after Labor Day.
• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Bank of America is asking staff to voluntarily disclose whether they have received a COVID-19 vaccine, two people familiar with the matter said, a step that underscores Wall Street’s moves to gradually shift people back into the offices after more than a year of remote work. 

Some 7,000 employees within the bank’s sprawling Merrill Lynch Wealth Management business, including financial advisors and other staffers, have already disclosed, one of the people said. A spokesperson declined to comment on that figure.

A majority of the bank’s force of some 200,000 employees are working from home. The company said it plans to ask employees to return to their offices in phases, depending on their roles and local health guidelines, and that it is not currently requiring employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine before returning to their offices. 

Last week, Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said during Bank of America’s annual shareholder meeting that he expects “a more normal operating posture” for US-based employees after Labor Day in September. 

“We are a work-from-office company that may be in center cities. It may be in suburban office space. But we are a work-from-office company,” Moynihan said, according to a transcript on investment research platform Sentieo. “We’ve been clear with that.”

After an unnamed shareholder asked whether the bank’s board of directors would “commit to not coercing” employees into getting a COVID-19 vaccine, Moynihan said Bank of America, the second-largest US bank, is educating employees on the vaccine rollouts.

It will “continue to educate them about the benefits of getting vaccinated” for the safety of their families, he said. 

Leaders of the largest banks and money managers have started making it clear that socially distant work is coming to an end as COVID-19 vaccines roll out. Most US-based adults want their employers to make the vaccine mandatory in order to return to offices, according to a survey of 1,000 full- and part-time workers by workplace-tech firm Envoy. 

JPMorgan, the largest US bank, said Tuesday that it will open all US offices on May 17 under a 50% occupancy cap, and expects staff to return to the office on a rotational basis by July, Insider reported.

“I think some will say, ‘I like the flexibility,'” JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said last week during a webcast for wealth management clients. “It has to work for the company and the clients. You’ll be asked to come in when your team is there. You’ll ask your team to come in. It can’t be ‘everybody does what they want’ because it’s so inefficient.”

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