Less crowded trading floors, facial recognition systems and split work areas could all become routine for bankers in Singapore as the city-state readies for office life in a post-COVID-19 world.
Financial institutions in the city-state should use more no-touch technology, allow more space for each employee and adopt split teams on trading floors once staff return after the COVID-19 pandemic, recommendations from a study commissioned by the city-state’s Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and released yesterday said.
Lenders are being encouraged to use hot-desking, motion detectors, temperature and face-mask detection screening, and improved ventilation to avoid potential contamination, the report said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Staff should be allowed to work from satellite offices or branches in addition to companies’ main headquarters, it said.
Such measures “are imperative to strike a balance between workplace safety and minimizing disruption to business operations,” said the study, which was carried out by real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield PLC and some of Singapore’s biggest banks.
With more than 200 financial institutions operating in Singapore, the city-state is looking at how to get staff back to the office after they have spent more than one year juggling working from home and family life.
The city-state has taken a cautious approach to returning staff to offices even as infection rates remain low.
The recommendations from Singapore envision a workplace that is geared to switch quickly to a “pandemic-on” mode so that companies can react to pandemics.
“MAS encourages our financial institutions to consider the recommended strategies in the Playbook to enhance safety and resiliency in the workplace,” MAS Deputy Managing Director Ong Chong Tee (王宗智) said in a statement. “This will be helpful to be well prepared for any situations in future that may require safe distancing and work-from-home arrangements.”
The report also compares Singapore’s approach in managing the pandemic with other major financial hubs, such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, London, New York and Sydney.
It found that the density of its offices is comparable to Sydney, with an average 7.4m2 to 11m2 per seat. That is more spacious than in Hong Kong, where it is 3.7m2 to 9m2.
How financial institutions adapt to a post-COVID-19 world has the potential to reshape business districts in hubs around the world.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last