HSBC halts return to office plan in Britain

LONDON (Reuters) – HSBC has paused its plan to return more staff to office working in Britain, in common with other financial firms after Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday urged workers to stay home to combat the coronavirus.

“We will pause any further consideration of ‘phase one’ teams returning to offices,” HSBC said to its staff in Britain in a memo seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for the bank confirmed the contents of the memo.

Critical workers needed for the bank and its branches to operate will continue to go in to the office, the memo said.

(Reporting By Lawrence White; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe)