Wells Fargo shutters 15 branches and Bank of America closes seven

Banks filed to close 24 branches last week – and to open just two – as part of an ongoing scramble to eliminate costly brick-and-mortar banking locations. Wells Fargo notified its regulator of 15 planned closures, including three in Florida and two in California, Georgia, and New Jersey.

Bank of America reported seven over the same week, between November 19 and November 25, according to the latest bulletin published by the regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Wells Fargo has the second largest number of physical bank branches in the US with around 4,500 as of July – but that tally is continuing to dwindle. In 2013 it had more than 6,000 locations, according to data from BankRegData.

Bank of America has also been cutting its branch count and began some years earlier than Wells Fargo. The company had 5,400 branches in 2013 and around 3,800 this year, according to BankRegData. A spokesperson for Bank of America told DailyMail.com that it was closing certain branches in response to diminishing customer traffic.

‘What we’re seeing across the industry is that our clients are using digital banking for more of their everyday needs. They only come into our financial centers when they want to have a conversation about their finances or something that’s a little more complex,’ they said. As the habits of consumers are changing, so too are the way banks are set out, said the spokesperson. In the past Bank of America branches were arranged in such a way that the teller line was at the front. That line is now often at the back of the branch to make space for customers to meet with bank employees privately nearer to the entrance.

Although the majority of consumer banks have been closing branches in recent years, the extent of the downscaling could begin to level off, the spokesperson suggested. Another spokesperson for Wells Fargo, Amy Amirault, also told DailyMail.com that the bank is evolving with its customers. ‘As customer preferences and transaction patterns change, so will our branches,’ she wrote in a statement. ‘For example, we may open new branches where we combine two older existing branches into one better situated location.’

Of the seven branches Bank of America indicated it would close, two were in Fullerton, California. Others were scheduled in Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey and New York. The two banks that reported last week that they would be opening branches were Flagstar Bank and BankUnited. In the first half of the year – between January 1 and July 31 – a total of 1,144 national and regional banks were closed, according to data from S&P reviewed by DailyMail.com.

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