Santander Bank has notified regulators that it plans to close about 4.5% of its U.S. branch network this summer, with all of the shutdowns slated to affect locations in the Northeast.
The U.S. subsidiary of Spanish banking giant Banco Santander filed 18 advance branch closing notices last week with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Of the 18 offices, six are in Massachusetts, four are in New Jersey and another four are in Pennsylvania. Two offices are in the New York metro area and the remaining two are in Rhode Island and New Hampshire.
News of the U.S. closures comes about seven weeks after Santander said it would shut down 95 of its 444 branches in the United Kingdom this summer. That's about one-fifth of its total U.K. branch network. The bank also said it would reduce operating hours at 36 other U.K. offices.
The U.S. closures, which are expected to happen between July 31 and Aug. 21, come as Santander pursues a nationwide digital banking strategy in the United States. In October, it launched Openbank, an online banking platform, to attract deposits from across the country.
The product kicked off with a high-yield savings account offering a premium interest rate, and there are plans to offer a checking account and certificates of deposits by the end of the year.
In a statement Tuesday to American Banker regarding the branch closures, Santander said it "continues to refine its branch footprint and retail presence, including introducing new formats and investing in digital capabilities to better accommodate our customers and meet their evolving needs." The bank currently has about 400 U.S. branches, mostly in the Northeast.
It was not immediately known how many jobs will be impacted by the pending office shutdowns. The bank said it is trying to connect affected employees to new roles within the company.
This is not the first time this year that Santander has disclosed branch-closure plans. In January, it notified the OCC that it would shutter one branch in Connecticut and another in Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, Santander is planning to open a new branch in Miami's Worldcenter, a new high-rise retail and entertainment hub. The office will be Santander's first Openbank-branded branch.
Openbank, which has been available in part of Europe for years, is part of Santander's goal to be "a digital bank with branches." In March 2024, it announced the hiring of Swati Bhatia, a former head of Goldman Sachs' digital brand Marcus, as its new head of retail banking and transformation. And earlier this year it shifted Christiana Riley, who joined Santander in 2023 as the bank's regional head of North America, into the role of CEO overseeing U.S. operations.
As part of its initiative to expand its scale and attract more deposits, it recently announced a multiyear partnership with Verizon that allows eligible Verizon customers to open a high-yield savings account through Openbank. The deal provides the bank with a new pipeline of deposits and rewards Verizon customers with credits toward Verizon mobile and 5G home internet bills.
