[jauntywundrkind]

Banks are by far the vanguard force advocating for RTO in part because the banking industry owns a colossal amount of office and commercial real estate, and if the world doesn't magically go back to how it was they stand to lose many tons of money.

[phunkymonkey]

This. Those same banks also own all the credit lines, card merchant services, and other financial instruments attached to every smaller, adjacent business (restaurants, dry cleaners, gyms, convenience stores, etc.) with clientele in those offices. Companies with a big footprint in one place also typically get tax breaks for bringing their workforce to that city, with the expectation that the economic activity will generate other tax revenue. When big employers don't force their people to be in a certain building for a minimum amount of time, all of that deflates.

Big banks, in particular, want to make a big, public show that "we're all going back to the office" in order to, at a minimum, delay the inevitable collapse of commercial real estate concentrated in major cities. On the inside, they're willing to quietly make exceptions if you fit the right profile (key talent, DEI quotas, political buddies, etc.). If you're a regular, high performing employee with no reason to be in an office, go pound sand.

Source: I'm that person. We lost a LOT of good people because of this over the last few years.