Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan on Wednesday warned against moving too swiftly to reopen the United States economy, saying that the decision should only be made after businesses know a return to work will be “stable.”
“We’ll bring people back — first, when we’re allowed to — but we’ll also bring people back on a view that we don’t want to change course of action until we know it’s going to be stable,” Moynihan said on a press call to discuss the bank’s latest earnings report, according to Politico. “Once we got the people here, we actually have the luxury to hold off longer.”
President Trump on Tuesday tapped Moynihan as a member of the administration’s advisory committee to reopen the economy. The panel includes leaders in agriculture, banking, tech and sports sectors, among others.
Trump in recent days has begun pushing more aggressively for the U.S. to prepare plans for reopening portions of the economy. He said Monday that he had “total” authority over states when it came to the decision. But he backtracked just a day later, stating that he would authorize the country’s governors to reopen their individual economies as they see fit.
Moynihan asserted in the press call that Trump and his administration should continue to prioritize the health of the nation over the economy. He said right now priorities should be on protecting health care workers “fighting the war” on the front lines against the virus and administering financial assistance to workers who have lost jobs amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“The more you can keep people stabilized in their ability to meet their obligations and keep their family fed and housed and things like that, that is what you should be focused on until you can reopen the economy,” he said, Politico noted.
Bank of America reported a 45 percent decline in first quarter profit on Wednesday,
according to CNBC. The bank has reportedly set aside $3.6 billion for loan-loss reserves.
Moynihan said that the bank is “serving customers at volumes that are pretty remarkable” and noted that it has been involved in the launch of the Paycheck Protection Program. More than 150,000 of the bank’s employees have been told to work from home since early March, he added.
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