Financial institutions will take many months to return to theiroffices, with some considering that up to a third of theiremployees will remain more permanently off-site, according toa recent Deloitte report. Inthe meanwhile, financial services firms are facing real estatecircumstances unique to the industry that will also factorinto their return plans.

The accounting firm's report cited a mid-April surveyby Deloitte of 100 senior financial service industry executiveswith responsibility for crisis management and business continuityplanning. That survey showed at least half of respondent firms weredeveloping COVID-19 operational contingency plans spanning at leastthe next three months.

Deloitte noted that many financial industry leaders are still inthe early stages of developing return-to-workplace strategies. Fromoffice towers to data centers to bank branches, the industry is thesecond largest in terms of office space leasing, accounting formore than 15% of total office leasing activity, the reportsaid.