Some JPMorgan traders catch COVID as bank reopens offices

NEW YORK (AP) — A number of JPMorgan Chase traders have been sent home after employees tested positive for COVID-19, less than a week into the bank's push to start bringing its workers physically back into the office.

JP Morgan has been “managing individual cases (of employees testing positive) across the firm over the course of the last few months and following appropriate protocols when they occur," bank spokesman Brian Marchiony said Tuesday. He declined to say how many had tested positive.

New York-based JPMorgan has been insisting its traders and senior management return to their physical offices, setting a required start date of Sept. 21.

President Donald Trump last week tweeted congratulations to the bank for its push, saying that it was ordering “everyone BACK TO OFFICE.” JPMorgan, however, never had plans to reopen its entire office or return all workers to a physical location.

Marchiony declined to say whether JPMorgan would continue its push to reopen the offices or what percentage of the its workforce of about 257,000 was now working physically in branches and offices.

The news of the positive tests was first reported by Bloomberg News.

Few other banks or financial companies had been as insistent as JPMorgan to return its workers to the office. For example, American Express, which has a substantial presence in New York City like JPMorgan, announced that all its employees could continue to work remotely until July 2021.