Coronavirus: Macquarie staff returning to offices on ‘very voluntary and phased basis’

The global asset manager and investment bank has begun the slow process of bringing its staff back to the office.

Macquarie Group CEO Shemara Wikramanayake on Thursday warned of challenging market conditions ahead. Picture: AAP

Months after Macquarie’s 16,000-strong workforce were ordered to work from home due to the COVID-19 crisis, the global asset manager and investment bank has begun the slow process of bringing its staff back to the office.

Macquarie has cleared less than a fifth of its staff to return to the office in cities it has deemed safe, CEO Shemara Wikramanayake said, but only a portion had so far taken up the offer.

“We had our staff, in Asia first, working from home. And then by the time we got to mid-March, 98 per cent of our people around the world — roughly 16,000 people — were working from home,” Ms Wikramanayake said ahead of the company’s annual general meeting.

“We’ve only just started bringing a few of those people back to work. We’ve cleared about 17 per cent of our staff in countries or cities where we think it’s safe to come back to the office, on a very voluntary and phased basis.”

Despite the drive to begin moving its workforce back to a central location, less than half of those ­approved to return to the office have done so.

“Frankly, only about 40 per cent of those cleared are taking advantage of the opportunity to come in because they’re finding that they can operate so well working remotely and from home,” Ms Wikramanayake said.

The group’s banking and financial services arm has had to work “triple time” to support customers through the crisis, she said.

“We’ve brought on furloughed staff from industries like travel to help with call centre support because the workload has stepped up so much,” she said.

Addressing the worsening situation in Victoria, where more than 700 new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Thursday, Ms Wikramanayake said the bank would continue to support its customers through the crisis as she sought to reassure people on the quality of its loan book.

“The quality of our book is very, very good,” she said. “Our loan-to-value ratio … is sitting on a dynamic basis at about 57 per cent. So whether it be in the mortgage book or even with our small to medium enterprise clients, where we’re a small player in the business banking, we have a high-quality book.

“But we have to play out that for some of those people, depending on what industry they’re in. They could suffer more than others. As the Victorian situation gets worse, we may have people face greater difficulty and I think like, all our peers, we’re very committed to bringing as many of our customers through this as possible.

Macquarie earlier on Thursday warned of challenging market conditions ahead and said uncertainty caused by the pandemic meant it was unable to give earnings guidance for the full year.

The bank unveiled a first-quarter operating group net profit contribution down slightly on the same period a year ago, amid “mixed” trading conditions.