Branch banking

Branch office deposit data is among the most confidential information at a bank, especially those with many branches. Why have regulators made this sensitive competitive data public for banks and thrifts annually for over 50 years but not for credit unions?

The Charleston-based company agreed to pay $267 million to acquire Piedmont Bank in Peachtree Corners, Georgia. It's United's 34th deal, but the first since 2021.

Branches won't succeed without significant investment in mobile and in-branch technology; but failing to invest in bankers themselves is just as big a problem.

Instead of painting unionization as a barrier to business success, we should consider it an opportunity to rebuild trust, integrity and responsibility within the banking sector.

Based on the pace of deals through late March, the banking industry is on track for the most branch sales since 2021. Buyer interest has mounted alongside the need to acquire deposits, following hits to funding bases last year.

In the wake of multiple successes in 2023, the labor movement in the U.S. is continuing its efforts to expand. Recent successful union elections at Wells Fargo branches should be a wake-up call to the industry.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp declined to detail the savings it expects from the downsizing, though one analyst estimated it could shave $3 million from the company's annual noninterest expenses.

After focusing on cost control throughout much of 2023, including a round of job cuts, the Pittsburgh company has announced plans to expand in high-growth markets like Texas and refurbish more than 1,200 existing offices.

Lloyds Banking Group is cutting around 1,600 roles across its branches, part of a push by the lender to provide more services online.

The expansion program, entering its sixth year, gives the Cincinnati-based company a regional profile few of its competitors can match, CEO Tim Spence said on a conference call with analysts.

The North Carolina-based company said it expects to close about 4% of its branch network, or roughly 80 offices, by the end of the first quarter. The closures come amid Truist's $750 million cost-cutting initiative.

Overall merger-and-acquisition activity proved modest across the banking sector, but several prominent deals were reached. Read on for details of the year's biggest transactions.

The vote by workers in a New Mexico branch is the first union victory at a megabank in decades, though unionization efforts at another Wells branch took a step back.

The Cincinnati, Ohio, bank also promoted three other top executives to new roles. All of the changes will be effective in early 2024.

Across the industry, the pace of branch shutdowns slowed this year. Still, large financial institutions continued to trim their physical footprints, with two super-regional banks taking the most aggressive actions.

Xu Guojun, a former local branch head at Bank of China, was handed a life sentence over one of the Asian nation's biggest bank frauds.

The nation's largest bank has already completed many of the branch closings that can boost its earnings, leaving it with "less and less accretive opportunities to consolidate," according to a top executive.

Unions have historically had little success organizing bank employees, but recent high-profile gains for the labor movement have fueled hopes that will change. The two elections at Wells Fargo will be a test.

Diebold Nixdorf is using artificial intelligence to spot trouble proactively — a move that has already increased ATM uptime by up to 3.5%.

NCR Atleos and Diebold Nixdorf are signing deals that grant access to other industries and regions where there's demand for self-serve cash access — with additions such as artificial intelligence and better security.