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“If people really can’t come to the office, can we create a virtual presence?” Beatriz Martin, UBS UK chief executive, told the Financial Times. “We are thinking about experimenting with the tools that are out there.”

UBS has set up a working group focused on “reimagining the trading floor”, which has also considered setting up screens on traders’ desks with camera feeds from their co-workers to encourage collaboration.

This month, JPMorgan Chasesummoned senior tradersback to the bank’s tower blocks in Canary Wharf and midtown Manhattan in a move praised by US president Donald Trump. But the bank has already been forced to send staff home from its New York trading floor after an employee tested positive for Covid-19, according to Bloomberg.

JPMorgan was hit by an outbreak on the same trading floor in April when 16 people tested positive.

Barclays also sent staff home from its London trading floor this month after two employees tested positive.

As with most global investment banks, UBS has taken a cautious approach to encouraging staff to return to the office, working mainly on a voluntary basis. Deutsche Bank, for example, told its New York staff this week that they were not required to return to the office until mid-2021 when it plans to open a new headquarters at Columbus Circle.

This week, BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink said he expected only two-thirds of the fund manager’s staff to return to the office in the long term.

“I don’t believe BlackRock will ever be 100 per cent back in the office,” he told the Morningstar Investment Conference.