Bank of America Global Head of Equities Fabrizio Gallo made the remarks on March 25
Leaked audio has revealed a Bank of America executive berating traders who planned to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic, in shocking remarks that have been criticized as ‘cold-blooded’.
In the March 25 conference call, Bank of America’s Global Head of Equities, Fabrizio Gallo, told the bank’s top equity and equity derivatives traders that long-term remote work would not be an option.
‘Of course, we are going to entertain special cases but not the ‘I don’t feel comfortable, sorry.’ It doesn’t work that way over the long term,’ Gallo said in the recording obtained by CNBC, citing exceptions that might be made for employees with serious health issues.
‘At some point in time, one has to make a decision,’ Gallo told the group assembled on the phone. ‘And the reason why it’s called critical function is because we have a critical requirement by senior-ups to provide proper and orderly markets. And we cannot provide proper and orderly markets if 99 percent of the population decides they don’t feel comfortable.’
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on March 20, the final day that the famed trading floor was open. On March 25, Gallo demanded that his traders at Bank of America come into the office despite their ability to work remotely.
Gallo then seemed to threatened demotions or even termination for those who were unwilling to work in the office as the deadly pandemic sweeps across the nation.
‘You cannot on one hand say you cannot trust the firm and on the other hand get the money from the firm, for a long period of time if you are in a critical function,’ he said. ‘Now if people decide they don’t want to be in a critical function we can have that conversation too.
‘Every single person in this office right now has a family. Every single person in this office right now has children. Every single person in this office right now has elderly parents. Some are very far away, some are here. Every single person in this office is worrying about it.’
Charlotte, North Carolina, where Bank of America is headquartered, had implemented a shelter-in-place order the day before the call, on March 24, ordering all non-essential workers to stay at home. New York’s similar order had gone into effect on March 20.
While financial institutions are considered essential infrastructure, authorities have urged anyone who is able to work from home to do so. Even the New York Stock Exchange closed its floor on March 23, with all traders working remotely.
Still, Gallo appeared to demand that his traders quickly return to the office or face professional consequences.
On Thursday, a New York Stock Exchange employee is the sole person present to ring the opening bell. BofA says that 95% of its traders are now working from home
‘There’s a balance there between critical mass in the office and not critical mass in the office,’ said Gallo. ‘If you’re deemed critical and you decide to stay at home then we’ll just take your access away — no problem, after a certain period of time.
‘I assume people when they’re staying at home, they are self-quarantining? Are they’re going out for a walk? They’re going to the supermarket? So, you can catch it at the supermarket. You can catch it at the CVS. You can catch it walking next to a person.’
Bank of America did not immediately respond to an inquiry from DailyMail.com, but told CNBC: ‘The premise of this conversation is that after a period of time and the government and health officials have said that it is safe, people will need to come back to work and we know people will have personal challenges and we will need to help them plan for that.’
‘This conversation took place two weeks ago when we were establishing new protocols about employees executing trades from home,’ the company’s statement continued.
‘We have 95% of our people working from home in the trading businesses including some of our most senior traders.’
Despite the company’s explanation, Gallo’s remarks drew swift backlash from the public.
‘I’m a customer that does significant business with BofA. How do you justify Fabrizio Gallo’s comments at a time like this? I have no interest in working with a firm which doesn’t value it’s employees… particularly at a time like this,’ one person wrote on Twitter.
‘His speech, in the midst of a global pandemic, is one of the most cold-blooded things I’ve ever heard,’ the person continued.
Another person who said they formerly worked at Bank of America tweeted: ‘I was told “Every employee is critical at Bank of America” once. Does that mean everyone gets threatened like that a** Fabrizio Gallo did to his team at BofA? Stupid! It’s all for your performance.’