Barclays boss Jes Staley has urged its UK employees working from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic to return to offices.

According to sources, Staley indicated that Barclays will not abandon its financial hubs.

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Speaking to Bloomberg TV, Staley said: “It is important to get people back together in physical concentrations.

“We also have a responsibility to places like Canary Wharf, like Manchester, like Glasgow.

“We want our people back together, to make sure we ensure the evolution of our culture and our controls, and I think that will happen over time.”

Previously, Staley had noted that big city offices “may be a thing of the past”.

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Staley also said that as many as 60,000 employees have been “working from their kitchen tables”; however, another 20,000 employees have been working in branches and call centres.

Meanwhile, HSBC asked its employees in the UK not to return to the office until at least September 2020.

In a memo seen by the Evening Standard, HSBC said that it currently has a small number of key workers at its offices and does not plan to bring in additional staff before September.

The memo stated: “When the time comes to return colleagues to our offices, we will do so on a phased basis, bringing back first those colleagues in roles carrying the greatest risk working from home, and who are able to return, and only after giving them guidance on how to operate in the new work environment.

“It will be to a limited number of buildings and will see less than 20% of colleagues return to any single office.

“In some buildings, maintaining two-metre social distancing means it will be far less than 20 per cent.”