The Financial Conduct Authority has warned financial advisers should not work from an office or meet clients face-to-face during the coronavirus lockdown.
In an update on its website the regulator said it expected advisers to support clients online or over the phone, with few exceptions.
The watchdog said employers should be taking "every possible step to facilitate their employees working from home", including providing IT equipment.
The UK is now entering the second week of lockdown in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, and many firms already asked their employees to work from home before it became an official requirement.
The FCA said: "Each firm’s designated senior manager or equivalent person is responsible for identifying which of their employees are unable to perform their jobs from home, and have to travel to the office or business continuity site.
"We expect the total number of roles requiring an ongoing physical presence in the office or business continuity site to be far smaller than the number of workers needed to ensure all of a firm’s business activities continue to function on a business as usual basis."
The regulator also said claims management companies should work from home as well as those staff who could "safely and securely" trade shares and financial instruments.
rachel.mortimer@ft.com
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