Bank of America has closed more branches than any other major bank in the first nine months of 2024.
The banking giant shuttered 132 branches between January and September, an analysis of official closure data by DailyMail.com shows.
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This significantly surpassed its competitors, with US Bank closing the second-most branches at 101 during the same period.
A Bank of America spokesperson told DailyMail.com that many closures involved consolidating two nearby branches into one.
But closing branches forces locals who rely on in-person services to travel further to reach the nearest branch.
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Banks must report all planned closures and openings to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a federal banking regulator.
Each week, it publishes a summary of these.
DailyMail.com analyzed these to compile the details of total closures so far this year.
In total, more than 700 branches were shuttered, forcing thousands to travel further to access vital services.
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If that rate of closures continues for the rest of this year, slightly more than 1,000 branches will have shut across the country by the new year.
Meanwhile, separate research recently revealed that the last physical bank branch could close in the US in 2041.
Experts from Self Financial reached that figure by studying the rate of net closures across the country, which has averaged 1,646 each year since 2018.
Bank of America defended the closures.
Our financial center network is core to our business and gives us a strategic advantage,’ a spokesperson said.
‘So far this year, we have opened more than 40 financial centers across the country.
‘We routinely adjust where our centers are located, based on foot traffic into each location. Nearly all of the closures in 2024 have been to combine two nearby centers into one, or to move a financial center to a new location to better serve our clients.’
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Research by GoBankingRates found two in three seniors now prefer mobile or online banking over in person.
Meanwhile, 23 percent of adults 18 to 24 visited a bank just once in the past year.
‘Our latest research on the future of banking has shown a growing number of Americans – across all generations – are opting for mobile banking over traditional banking,’ Andrew Murray, lead researcher at GOBankingRates told Daily Mail.com.
‘This all goes to show the clear trend that traditional banking is becoming much less common for Americans of all generations,’ Murray said.
Despite the majority of Americans now opting to do the majority of their banking online, customers still prefer to use physical branches for particular services.
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It is also a struggle for some older clients to operate services such as mobile banking.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans still use a physical branch to make cash deposits, while over half use them to speak to an in-person adviser, the report found.
39 percent of those polled told Self Financial that they had more trust in banks with physical branches than those without.
