“Very focused on getting our people back to the office”: Bank of America global strategy leader Catherine Bessant

“Very focused on getting our people back to the office”: Bank of America global strategy leader Catherine Bessant

Within the world of banking, the rapid adoption of hybrid work and remote work caused by the pandemic isn't going down easy, at least not as a permanent state. And if there is the thought that maybe technology leaders within big banks would be more likely to see the ability of the world of work to be recreated virtually than CEOs who came up through the core banking divisions, Cathy Bessant, Vice Chair of Global Strategy at , isn't going to be that person. Bank of America went remote during the pandemic and that was the No. 1 priority for employees. "Safety of our people first, equipping our people to work remotely which was no easy feat, equipping them to work remotely, and then hardcore, precise focus on performance for customers and clients every day," Bessant, who was the chief of operations and technology at the bank in a previous role, said at the CNBC @Work Summit on Wednesday. "We were all in uncharted territories." And it worked by one notable measure of innovation: Bank of America received more patents in the first half of 2020 than ever before in its history during a comparable time period. But now, as