BlackRock will not layoff employees due to COVID-19 pandemic: CEO

(Reuters) – BlackRock Inc , the world’s largest asset manager, will not layoff any employees during the year due to the coronavirus outbreak, Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said on Wednesday.

The company will also pay full-time wages to support staff, such as cafeteria and maintenance workers, even if they cannot come to work, Fink wrote in a LinkedIn post. (https://bit.ly/2yM6LR9)

He said more than 90% of asset manager’s employees were working remotely.

BlackRock had about 16,200 employees as of Dec. 31, according to its annual filing.

Other major financial institutions, including top U.S. banks Citigroup and Morgan Stanley , have also assured their employees that there will not be any layoffs at those institutions because of the pandemic.

(Reporting by Saumya Sibi Joseph and Shariq Khan in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)