Report: Banks Close 79 Branches in 6 Weeks

As banks increasingly move towards digital services, 79 U.S. branches have closed within just six weeks across various states, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail.

More than 400 physical branches have been closed this year, the outlet reported on Wednesday.

JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, BankUnited, BMO Bank, Citizens Bank, and Inwood NB are among the banks that announced closures.

The Daily Mail provided a detailed list of the closing locations for anyone who wants to check if they are affected.

California experienced the highest number of closures, according to the report.

JPMorgan closed 18 branches; Wells Fargo shut down 17, including eight in the past week alone; and Bank of America filed to close 16 locations across the country, including in California, Florida, and New Jersey.

According to the consulting firm Bancography, this strategy is part of an effort to consolidate locations, which offers significant annual savings while targeting a shift from rural to urban markets, the Daily Mail reported.

In January and February, 222 banks closed branches nationwide.

Between April 7 and 13, TD Bank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase closed a combined total of 36 branches.

The last time the number of bank branches increased was in 2011, when there were more than 85,000 branches nationwide, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Since then, that number has dropped to about 70,000.

One demographic that will be heavily affected by the shift from physical banks to online banking is older adults who are less comfortable with digital banking.

This change will also impact local communities and businesses — potentially signaling the end of traditional banking as we know it.

Each week, banks are required to report branch openings and closures to the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

In January, Republic First Bank, operating in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, was seized by the FDIC and sold to Fulton Bank.

Republic Bank’s 32 branches were set to reopen as Fulton Bank branches.

The failure, which will cost the deposit insurance fund $667 million, followed a trend of regional banks struggling due to higher interest rates and commercial real estate loan issues.