Bank of America, Chase and Woodforest among banks to close 51 branches in just three weeks – is YOURS affected?

U.S. banks closed 51 branches across the country in the first three weeks of June.

The figures suggest that banks are committed to increasingly offering their services online and eliminating costly physical locations.

More than 400 bank branches have been closed so far in 2024.

In the weeks of June 2 to June 23, Woodforest National Bank closed the most branches – 29 in total in states including Ohio, New York and Virginia.

Bank of America also closed nine branches during the same period.

Santander, Fulton Bank and Dream First Bank were also among those announcing closures.

New York was the hardest-hit state with eight closures at locations in Manhattan, Albany and Jefferson.

In the same three weeks of June, a further 32 bank branches were opened, leaving a net of nineteen closures.

JP Morgan Chase led the charge on openings, filing notices for thirteen new branches with the federal regulator.

Every week, banks must notify the Office of the Comptroller of the Coin (OCC) of branch openings and closings.

The last year the number of branches in the US increased was 2011, when there were more than 85,000 in the US, according to FDIC data. Since then, the number has steadily declined to around 70,000.

Most national banks such as US Bank, Bank of America and Wells Fargo have become increasingly confident that online banking can meet the needs of most customers.

Closures can lead to significant savings. According to Bancography, an Alabama-based consulting firm that advises banks, the average freestanding branch costs $2.6 million per year.

Steven Reider, the founder and president of Bancography, previously told DailyMail.com that “banks are willing to close a branch that doesn’t overlap with any other branch, on the gamble that customers are willing to go a little further.”

“I think Bank of America has leaned on that more than the other big banks,” he added.

Reider also noted that Bank of America’s history of mergers has led to it acquiring locations in rural areas, but the industry is undergoing “a rural-to-urban transformation.”

“Every census since 1910 has shown that a greater share of Americans live in urban areas than the previous census, so as we become an increasingly urbanized nation, demand in these traditional rural markets is only fading,” he said.

Ultimately, banks want to consolidate the markets they’re already in, and that means placing more emphasis on dominance in a handful of cities.

For example, Chase is forcibly moving into Kansas City, Fifth Third is making similar moves into Charlotte, and PNC is targeting Austin.

Although bank branch closures began to increase throughout the 2010s, they were exacerbated by the pandemic, which kept people at home.

More than 1,500 bank branches closed for good in 2023, with California and the Midwest hardest hit.

See the boxes below for the latest closures and links to all of this year’s weekly announcements.