Facility Solutions: Fake or real branch trends

Headlines about openings and closures don’t tell the full story of credit union growth.

Like most news headlines, those announcing bank location closures are often over simplified and constructed to support one position or another—whether that’s the idea that technology replaces the need for branches or that human contact remains critical to productive financial relationships. Take these headlines as examples:

Banks Shutter 1,700 Branches in Fastest Decline on Record” – Wall Street Journal, 2018

JPMorgan Chase To Add 400 New Branches, Raise Wages Because of Tax Cuts” – cnbc.com 2018

Wells Fargo is closing 400 bank branches” – CNN, 2017

Bank of America wants to add 5,400 new jobs in national hiring spree, add 500 branches nationwide and refurbish older locations” – Charlotte Observer, 2018

To gain perspective about what’s really going on, let’s look at the numbers.

 

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