Wells Fargo implements work-from-home policy amid coronavirus outbreak

By Imani Moise

(Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co <WFC.N> said on Tuesday it is implementing work-from-home policies for most of its employees who don't interact with customers and can effectively work remotely, in response to the quickly-spreading coronavirus outbreak.

Branch employees, call center, and operations center employees and their managers are among those considered essential and will continue reporting to their offices, according to a memo seen by Reuters.

"Customer-facing and some non-customer-facing Wells Fargo employees will continue to work from Wells Fargo offices to serve customers, support operations, or support related activities such as business continuity planning," a spokeswoman said.

Having more employees out of the office will help those who cannot work remotely practice social distancing, the bank said.

Prior measures the bank has taken to stem the spread of the virus included restricting international and domestic travel and encouraging employees who can work from home to do so.

Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer Charlie Scharf told Congress last week that roughly 62,000 of the bank's employees were already working remotely. Wells Fargo has the largest workforce of the big U.S. banks, with about 250,000 workers.

(Reporting by Imani Moise; Editing by Paul Simao)