This Wall Street bank is letting staff work from anywhere through year-end

financialpost.com:

Citigroup Inc. is once again allowing most of its employees to work from anywhere for the final two weeks of the year.

The policy applies to hybrid workers — which account for the majority of the bank’s workforce — and staffers must stay in their country of employment to take advantage of the perk, according to a memo to staff seen by Bloomberg. The bank gave employees the same option last year.

A spokesperson for Citigroup confirmed the contents of the memo. CNBC reported the news earlier.

Fraser has offered most staffers the ability to work remotely at least part of the time on a permanent basis, with most Citigroup employees expected to be in the office three days a week. The bank is widely seen to be among the most amenable financial firms when it comes to flexible work arrangements following the COVID-19 pandemic, and chief executive Jane Fraser has said Wall Street’s insistence on full-time office attendance feels dated.

Still, the bank has signalled that staff face consequences if they don’t comply with policies for office attendance.

Citigroup is in the midst of its biggest overhaul in decades aimed at simplifying the sprawling lender and erasing layers of management. The restructuring will lead to job cuts but Citigroup hasn’t yet put a number on the level of eliminations.

Citigroup decided to shutter its municipal business, which has tumbled in the rankings for underwriting state and local debt, is “no longer viable given our commitment to increase the firm’s overall returns,” according to a memo to staff seen by Bloomberg News. Citigroup intends to complete the wind down by the end of the first quarter, which will mean most of the company’s municipal sales, trading and banking staffers will be departing the