- UBS, the Swiss bank headquarterd in Zurich, has begun implementing a split-operations policy in Switzerland this week as part of its coronavirus response.
- The firm has already implemented a similar policy for its employees across the Asia Pacific region.
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UBS has started implementing a split-operations policy in Switzerland this week as financial services firms around the world race to deal with the global spread of coronavirus.
The bank, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, has already implemented a split-operations approach in its Asia Pacific region, a spokesperson said on Friday.
“Agile and remote working is already part of UBS’s working approach — thus, we have the possibility to work from home for our employees,” the spokesperson said.
Part of a Switzerland-based team may divvy up time in the office, with one half working Monday and Tuesday and the other going in the rest of the week, for instance.
UBS, among the world’s largest wealth managers with some $2.6 trillion in assets under management, had some 700 financial advisers in Switzerland through Dec. 31. The majority of its force of around 10,000 advisers are located in the Americas.
The bank has communicated other COVID-19 preparation-related policies to its employees. The firm told employees on Wednesday that it was imposing a global restriction on international travel “that is not absolutely business critical,” according to a company memo reviewed by Business Insider.
It also said that existing international-travel bookings would also require approval and that if an employee or someone in the employee’s household had traveled to, from, or through China, South Korea, Italy, or Iran, they are not permitted to enter their office for two weeks after their return.
“We continue to actively monitor the situation and remain in close contact with the relevant authorities,” a spokesperson said.
The coronavirus outbreak, which originated in Wuhan, China, has killed more than 3,400 people around the world and infected more than 100,000 as of Friday.
Other firms and companies across industries have implemented similar policies as the virus spreads and it tries to keep operations running smoothly.
New York-based Morgan Stanley this week began shifting roughly half of its institutional-securities traders to its disaster-recovery site in Westchester, New York, as the coronavirus spreads, according to communications seen by Business Insider.
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