(Reuters) - Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) looks to return a small number of staff to its New York headquarters in July or possibly August, with workers reentering its London offices possibly even earlier, Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat told Bloomberg News in an interview.
Corbat said on Thursday the return will be "granular, site-by-site and within those sites, job-by-job", adding that sometime in July or possibly August is when the bank hopes to return about 5% of some 12,000 employees at Citigroup's main building in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood.
Staff returning to work will begin next month at the Canary Wharf complex in London, he added.
"The return of our colleagues to our sites will vary depending on local conditions and be driven by data, not dates," Citi spokeswoman Jennifer Lowney said in a statement.
"We anticipate a slow and measured reentry once local conditions permit, beginning with only a small number of colleagues who have a clear and compelling need to operate from a given location," the spokeswoman added.
Corbat told Bloomberg that he does not envision a "virtual bank", but he was considering less business travel.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) President John Waldron said on Wednesday the bank plans to reopen its New York and London offices to a small, "core group" of global markets and strategy employees in the coming weeks.