Goldman Sachs lifts COVID vaccine requirement, others for employees

Goldman Sachs has lifted its COVID-19 vaccine requirement. 

The Wall Street giant confirmed that it would no longer require testing or masks.

In excerpts of a memo obtained by Fox Business, the bank cited updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance. 

"The CDC recently updated its COVID-19 guidance for vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, including workplace settings. With many tools including vaccination, improved treatments and testing now available, there is significantly less risk of severe illness," it said. "The CDC’s updated guidance no longer differentiates between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals to define exposure and infections, and no longer recommends asymptomatic individuals quarantine following exposure, regardless of vaccination status."

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Effective Sept. 6, all employees at Goldman's will be allowed to enter offices in the Americas — except for New York City and Lima, Peru — regardless of vaccination status and with no requirement to participate in regular COVID-19 testing or to wear face coverings.

However, in New York City, those with an approved medical or religious exemption to the city's vaccine mandate can enter offices with no requirement to participate in the testing or masking. 

Employees without an approved exemption are instructed to continue remote work.

"With antigen test kits widely available in the community, we will begin ramping down the provision of test kits on our campuses, with the current expectation of ending the program by year-end. Where applicable, you can continue to apply for reimbursement through your insurance plan for tests you purchase," the memo told employees.

A source close to Goldman Sachs reportedly told The New York Post that CEO David Solomon wants his firm to be the leader when it comes to returning to the office full-time. 

Fox Business first reported, based on a company-wide memo, that Morgan Stanley will stop its testing requirements and other mitigation efforts by Sept. 5, recommending all employees return to the office. 

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"I think the CEOs are really worried … lackluster performance of many firms may be the result of structural issues they are having with their business models," said Gary Goldstein, founder of the Whitney Group, an executive search firm. 

"It’s a game of chicken. Many junior bankers will continue to work from home and the office around their own schedules and see what the repercussions are," another insider told The Post.

"We continue to make steady progress bringing our people together in the office, which is core to Goldman Sachs' apprenticeship culture and client-centric business," a spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs also told the paper.

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Solomon had previously told Fortune that he didn't believe the way the business works amidst the COVID-19 pandemic is different from five years ago and wouldn't change that much in the coming five years.

"The secret sauce to our organization is, we attract thousands of really extraordinary young people who come to Goldman Sachs to learn to work, to create a network of other extraordinary people, and work very hard to serve our clients," he said then.

Fox Business' Charlie Gasparino and Eleanor Terrett contributed to this report.