Branch banking

Bank of Montreal, which just completed its $16.3 billion takeover of Bank of the West, expects to be able to gain share even in U.S. markets where the firm only has a sparse branch presence.

Technology that was seen as best-in-class 10 years ago is practically table stakes for banks today and does not differentiate one bank from another. Branches do.

As customers increasingly do their banking via smartphone apps and online, Santander and Argentine rivals including BBVA Argentina, Grupo Financiero Galicia and Grupo Supervielle, like their global peers, are pushing to close physical locations. But regulators won't let them.

Many in Utqiagvik, Alaska, say they like banking with the country's fourth-largest bank. But they also want more banking options in their town, a reality that rural communities across the United States face.

Bank robberies are becoming a thing of the past in cashless Denmark as the Nordic country recorded its first year of zero holdups in 2022.

Amid high inflation and favorable conditions for job-seekers, several banks hiked their starting wages this year. But even as their labor costs rose, they still found it hard to hang onto employees.

Remote deposit capabilities have vastly improved banking services for residents of villages in western Alaska. But unreliable service means some face difficulties when trying to access their banking apps or make payments.

After focusing its de novo branching plans on the Carolinas in recent years, the Cincinnati-based bank is ready to shift its attention to Florida and — eventually — to Nashville and Atlanta.

Marijuana shops across the U.S. are rushing to find alternative ways for customers to pay after networks that supported a popular workaround to the banking system began to shut down last week.

HSBC Holdings has announced plans to shutter more than 100 of its U.K. branches next year as the bank pushes more of its customers to use its online services.

Central Pacific Bank, which has branches on the Big Island, is tracking the eruption of Mauna Loa in an effort to limit the risk of service interruptions. So far, the impacts appear to be limited.

Regions and PNC are two banks that have expanded the use of their mobile branches in recent years.

The $683 million-asset credit union opened a loan production office in Enfield dedicated exclusively to mortgage and business lending.

The Pacific Northwest bank has agreed to divest 10 branches as a condition of the Department of Justice's green light of its merger with Umpqua Holdings. The deal still needs the blessing of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Truliant Federal Credit Union plans to build three more locations in the northwest corner of South Carolina by the end of next year. The $4 billion-asset credit union also recently opened a regional office in Greenville, South Carolina.

The Southern California branches will be sold to HomeState Bank, a Seattle-based community bank. The Department of Justice required the sale as part of U.S. Bancorp's pending acquisition of MUFG Union Bank.

The industry is largely missing out on a huge segment of the market for financial services.

JPMorgan Chase is starting to phase out an offering far more associated with old-fashioned bank branches than today's smartphone apps: safe deposit boxes. 

The report, which examined trends between 2010 and 2021, found that the country's biggest banks only opened 638 branches in low-to-moderate-income communities made up primarily of people of color. That accounts for just 15% of their total branch openings.

Reports of the death of branch banking have been greatly exaggerated.