CIBC calls some corporate bankers back to the office full-time

financialpost.com:

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is starting to call some of its capital-markets bankers back to the office five days a week, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Staff in CIBC’s global corporate and investment-banking unit have been asked to be on-site full-time, a request that was communicated verbally earlier this month, one of the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private matters.

Christian Exshaw, who was named deputy head of CIBC’s capital-markets business in a leadership shuffle last year, is a proponent of his teams working in-office five days a week, the people said. The move follows a push by some of Wall Street’s biggest banks to return to pre-COVID norms.

Bankers in the corporate and investment-banking division, which is part of the broader capital-markets unit, include debt-capital and equity-capital markets bankers as well as investment bankers who advise on mergers and acquisitions. Most have already been working at least four days per week in-office, the people said.

CIBC’s approach to hybrid work “remains unchanged” spokesperson Andrew McGrath said by email Thursday.

“At CIBC, the amount of time employees spend in the office depends on their role, taking into consideration things like the nature of their work and where they’ll best meet our clients’ needs,” he said. “For some teams, that may mean more days in the office, and for others, it may mean more days working remotely.”

The Toronto-based bank, Canada’s fifth-largest lender, employs 48,000 people worldwide, according to its website.

Wall Street heavyweight JPMorgan Chase & Co. recently ended hybrid-work options for all its workforce of more than 300,000 globally, Bloomberg reported earlier this month. Goldman