Branch banking

A severe cold snap in the state has tested financial institutions unaccustomed to such weather-related disruption.

Comerica, Regions and Frost Bank closed hundreds of branches statewide while others ran them at reduced capacity or on power generators to help ease the strain on the state’s overwhelmed power grid.

The North Carolina-based credit union, which purchased the vacant bank branch last summer, serves some members across the state line but has not had a brick-and-mortar presence there until now.

Canada’s fourth-largest bank is pressing ahead with big technology investments to cut costs and try to generate more revenue from existing customers, said Erminia Johannson, BMO’s head of personal and business banking for the U.S. and Canada.

The credit union expects to open at least eight branches across the country in the months ahead, about half of what it normally adds to its brick-and-mortar network in an average year.

The companies are reacting to an ongoing shift in customer preferences to digital channels.

The ATM and payment terminal makers are facing more competition from software providers. Both have taken steps to head off this threat.

Cardtronics will accept a $1.7 billion sale to NCR after the ATM producer outbid Apollo Global Management and Hudson Executive Capital.

The Columbus, Ohio, company plans to close nearly 200 branches in the state — including more than 90 in Meijer grocery stores — after it acquires TCF Financial. It also intends to significantly boost its technology spending to improve its digital capabilities.

Pandemic-induced shifts in how people work and bank will allow the Tennessee company to shed more branches and office space. It now projects it will slash expenses by an additional $30 million a year.