A man walks in front of the Lujiazui Financial District, seen across the Huangpu River at dusk amid the lockdown in the Pudong area to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Shanghai, China, March 28, 2022 . REUTERS/Aly Song
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HONG KONG, April 27 (Reuters) – A leading lobby group for global financial services firms has urged authorities in Shanghai to let hundreds of exhausted employees go home after a month-long strict COVID-19 lockdown that has kept them confined to office buildings.
The Asia Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (ASIFMA), in a letter dated April 26, urged authorities to allow financial firms to rotate employees who must work from offices.
More than 20,000 bankers, traders and other workers have been forced to sleep in office towers in Shanghai’s Lujiazui district to keep China’s vast financial center afloat during the lockdown. Continue reading
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Employees settling into offices were given air mattresses, pillows and blankets and relied on limited facilities.
They have been unable to go outside since March 28, when Shanghai began imposing lockdown restrictions on areas east of the Huangpu River, according to a post from the county government’s official WeChat account.
“Currently, hundreds of employees of financial services firms have been locked in their office buildings and separated from their families for several weeks,” said the ASIFMA letter, a copy of which was verified by Reuters.
“As we do not know how long this outbreak will last or whether future outbreaks could result in additional lockdowns, we are exploring rotational support solutions to help build a sustainable model and promote financial market stability.”
ASIFMA declined to comment. The Shanghai government did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Many of ASIFMA’s 52 banks and other financial sector members have offices and significant staff in the financial center of Shanghai. Continue reading
Current regulations require financial firms in Shanghai to maintain a minimum staff presence on site to keep trading operations going, ASIFMA said, which was the reason financial workers had to hole up in offices.
ASIFMA joins other international business groups, including the European Union Chamber of Commerce, which have urged China to revise its guidelines and allow some COVID patients to quarantine at home. Continue reading
Financial sector professionals in Shanghai are preparing to return to Hong Kong and other offshore centers after just a few years in the Chinese city, as the strict lockdown has hurt business prospects and turned daily life upside down. Continue reading
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Reporting by Selena Li; additional reporting by Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Edited by Sumeet Chatterjee and Chizu Nomiyama
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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