"There is this argument in our industry right now that if banks begin doing their own development deals, they may not then use a third party leasing and property management company," Crossman says. "Additionally, we would end up competing with them for new development sites so we would have another competitor and lose a client." The Trammell Crow executive cites the growth of the REITs in the 1990s as an example of the above scenario.

"While we made money selling them properties, their growth limited our growth in third-party leasing and management because REITs typically handle their own accounts," Crossman says.

"So if banks started developing on their own and used inhouse services, for example, that would hurt," the broker says. "On the other hand, if banks began looking for deals and used third-party firms and would consider doing joint developments, our business would increase."