Better & Smarter

JLL’s Financial Services Portfolio of Tomorrow research finds that today’s financial services companies are reshaping their portfolios around access to talent and ecosystems of academic partners, start-up incubators and capital market infrastructure. Capital conservation continues to be a priority, alongside the need to create compelling workplaces and access infrastructure to support the growing use of AI-driven technologies across the financial services sector.

As financial services CRE strategies evolve, FM professionals must prepare for emerging complex challenges. Perhaps most importantly, FM teams are increasingly expected to create and support flexible workplaces that provide agility without extensive renovations or capital outlays. New portfolio strategies will require efficient management of workplaces that are geographically dispersed. In addition, familiarity with FM technologies — particularly smart building technologies and data and analytics tools — is becoming critical for keeping workplaces on pace with business requirements and employee expectations.

The changing landscape of financial services CRE

Financial services CRE portfolios are changing. The traditional model of a single monolithic headquarters in a global hub, supported by far-flung back offices, is being phased out in favor of a network of distributed, yet connected, spaces.

Global financial centers like New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore continue to attract core banking functions. However, cost-efficient locations like Seattle, Austin, Bengaluru, Toronto and Dallas are also on the rise, enabling companies to tap fresh pools of talent, often at a lower cost than in the primary hubs.

American Express and Goldman Sachs, for example, have expanded in India not simply as a cost play, but for access to a vast talent pool, including skilled engineers and other tech developers. Secondary markets, including Toronto, Dublin and Frankfurt, are also gaining traction as organizations seek out bilingual talent, regulatory clarity and digital readiness for continued tech innovation.

Concurrently, JLL’s research finds that many financial services companies are consolidating dispersed teams within a single market into fewer, larger, premium offices with better amenities, and housing multiple business units under one roof. City National Bank of Florida (CNB), for instance, plans to move all Miami-area staff into a new 145,000-square-foot Class A building in Coral Gables. In London, HSBC consolidated 3,000 staff into a single 400,000-square-foot WELL gold-certified building.

At the same time, organizational resilience has taken on new importance, with companies calling for agile, resilient workplaces that can weather market fluctuations, regulatory changes and even global disruptions.

From co-locating AI teams with product leaders to expanding wealth management services into university-adjacent markets, the financial services sector is leveraging real estate to attract, develop and retain talent — and empower productivity. However, financial services organizations will need new FM approaches to unlock the skills and innovation of their teams. JLL’s research illuminates the actions financial services FMs need to consider to future-proof their CRE portfolios.

Adapting the workplace for a changing talent landscape

The shift toward AI, advisory and hybrid tech roles in the financial services industry requires a corresponding shift in how workplaces are designed and managed. As companies continue to adjust their hybrid work policies, changing employee roles require adaptable workplaces that can support both deep technical work and agile cross-functional collaboration that sparks innovation.

It falls to FM teams to ensure that new portfolio and workplace strategies are strategic and implemented smoothly, and that workplaces are adequately supported. Modern workplace technologies that help workers stay connected are essential, as well as reconfigurable, flexible spaces for different departments and uses.

JPMorgan’s upcoming US$3 billion, 60-story global headquarters in New York, for instance, is explicitly designed as a modern 21st century workplace that also supports wellness and sustainability. Flexible “neighborhood” floors offer modular collaboration zones, immersive AI demonstration studios and a 60-foot digital art wall in the main atrium that doubles as an interactive data visualization canvas. Health and wellness features at the new headquarters include living green walls that span multiple floors, circadian-rhythm lighting systems and real-time air-quality monitoring tied to building controls — elements that work together to keep employees healthy and comfortable.

In addition to amenity-rich headquarters, financial institutions are also revisiting core owned and leased spaces, and tapping coworking and serviced offices for project teams, innovation labs or new market entries. Leading organizations also are embracing FM technologies to provide seamless workplace experiences, providing employees with tools for reserving workspaces, personalizing their work environments, collaborating with colleagues and accessing workplace services.

Positioning real estate to amplify AI & technology returns

In addition to the new challenges of managing increasingly complex portfolios, FM professionals also have a role to play in helping financial services companies improve their return on investment in AI and digital technologies. Many financial institutions are investing heavily in building their AI teams, and a McKinsey analysis shows that technology spending in banking globally has grown by 9 percent annually in recent years.

Yet, productivity has not always followed. In the United States, for example, banks have experienced an average productivity decline of 0.3 percent per year since 2010.

While multiple factors hinder productivity growth, FMs can more fully leverage the power of their institutions’ technology investments by reimagining work processes and workplaces in tandem. According to JLL’s research, key friction points are dispersed data and compliance teams; fragmented innovation groups separated from business sponsors; and rigid seating models that hinder ad-hoc collaboration and rapid iteration.

With the infusion of AI-driven operations, financial services companies must ensure that their workplaces support technology pilots and new use cases for AI. Australia-based CommBank, for example, has focused its U.S. expansion on access to technology markets and has created collaborative environments designed for hybrid product teams.

FMs also have an important role to play in technology adoption. With the consolidation of office space, fluctuating hybrid work schedules and regionally dispersed back-office support all in play throughout the financial services industry, unified CRE portfolio data is essential.

Today’s facility technologies offer automation and data-driven decision-making to enable dynamic workplace management that also improves employee experience. Leading financial services organizations are leveraging FM technologies to streamline employee access to workspaces and services; optimize energy consumption; maximize CRE productivity; reduce operating costs; and increase occupant comfort while collecting data to improve future operations.

Integrated building systems, digitized assets and automated processes are all essential to providing the safe, comfortable and healthy environment that top talent demands, while driving progress toward decarbonization goals, even in the wake of greater AI adoption. Smart building systems that bring together disparate data points and allow remote monitoring can help FM teams do more with less, including keeping spaces comfortable and secure, minimizing disruptions and avoiding duplicative efforts.

Leveraging innovative technology and advanced data can help boost the productivity of FM teams, helping them monitor, optimize and inform workplace strategy and align it with the goals of the larger business. As the financial services industry continues its AI-powered transformation, being able to benchmark asset and portfolio performance will be essential to making real estate decisions that advance future goals.

Controlling costs while creating an engaging, high-performance workplace

In JLL’s 2025 Occupancy Planning Benchmarking Survey, financial services companies cite improving employee experience as their top hybrid work goal, surpassing cost reduction and footprint cuts. That is good news for FMs, with more companies viewing real estate as a lever for performance, rather than a cost center.

Yet, elevated financing costs and capital pressures persist, and institutions are deploying creative real estate strategies to conserve capital. Common approaches include capital expense-sharing with landlords, performance-based leases, sale-leasebacks, green-incentive financing and more. These tools can unlock premium locations and fund fit-out investments while preserving capital flexibility.

Strategies to eliminate or reduce ongoing operating costs must also be considered. Condition-based, predictive maintenance, for example, cuts down on unnecessary maintenance tasks and extends equipment life, while automation can streamline the repetitive, manual tasks that can bog down FM teams. Energy conservation strategies, including energy retrofits and smart building systems, will also play a bigger role as power-hungry AI continues to become business-critical for financial institutions.

Navigating the path to the portfolio of tomorrow

Adapting to shifts in the financial services industry presents a distinct set of FM challenges. The following are key capabilities and practices that financial services FM teams will need to position their workplaces for the future.

Managing the portfolios of tomorrow — today

As new kinds of talent, technology and transformation reshape the rules of value creation, forward-looking financial institutions are laser-focused on creating their CRE portfolio of tomorrow. To be successful, bold moves with AI and other technologies must be matched by agile workplaces that attract and empower talent, and can weather the potential disruptions of market fluctuations, regulatory changes and unpredictable events.