Bank Branch Bloodbath Continues As Bank of America And Chase To Close Another 15 Locations

The bank branch bloodbath continues! Bank of America filed to close nine branches with the OCC last week. Chase filed to close six more.

Citizens and Trustco are each closing a branch each. Patriot and US Bank also reported one upcoming branch closure each.

In total, the OCC received notices of 19 branch closures across the country between October 29th and November 4th.

Five branch closings were in California,

However, Chase notified the regulator it would open four branches in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New Jersey and Missouri.

Trustco currently has around 145 branches in New York and Florida. In addition, they also have branches in Massachusetts and New Jersey.

Patriot is a relatively small bank. It is based in Connecticut with less than ten branches. It also has one in Scarsdale, New York.

The one closure reported by US Bank that week was in Portland, Oregon.  

The OCC states that 1,144 bank branches have been closed since January 1st.

New Jersey has seen the highest proportion of bank closures of any state.

Polls show 51% of consumers said they were concerned on some level about the closing of bank branches.

The survey also found that brick-and-mortar services were less accessible to black Americans. 14% of black Americans said they did not have a local branch in their neighborhood.  

Banks must notify the OCC when they close a branch.

The OCC also noted that banks and credit unions need to notify their primary regulator of closures. However, regulations do not allow the regulator to object to the closure. 

It also noted that the OCC does not regulate all banks in the US. Thus, banks have some freedom as to when they close a branch after making the filing.

Read More About The Bank Branch Bloodbath On MFI-Miami.

Also, check out the articles below:

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