Secure your place at the Digiday Media Buying Summit in Nashville, March 2-4
There may be no physical institution as historically revered as a bank. Community centers and trusted destinations, the banks of our imaginations are cool and quiet spaces housed inside classical limestone buildings. Ceilings are high, floors are marble; words echo. Behind bronze-framed windows, tellers take money from trusting customers for safekeeping or direct them to comfortable chairs where they wait for a personal banker.
Nice try. Banks these days are hardly elegant or imposing. Most have shrunk in size thanks to rising costs of real estate, and many have disappeared entirely, according to data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Chase reduced its branch presence by 190 locations, a 3.4 percent decline, from 2012 to 2016. Wells Fargo closed 98 branches, a 1.6 percent decline in the same period. Its peers are even more aggressive. Bank of America closed 243 branches (16 percent) in that period and Citi closed 302 (28.5 percent).
Branches are consolidating locations with lower servicing volume, opening in higher growth areas and renovating existing branches and ATMs. More importantly, they’re evolving into more compact, digitally oriented spaces that incorporate new technology and help branch employees focus on improving the customer experience.
Some end up looking more like Apple Genius Bars than banks.
More in Marketing
TikTok Shop reverses U.S. shipping policy amid merchant concerns over costs and fulfillment challenges
TikTok Shop has reversed its plan to end seller-fulfilled shipping in the U.S., telling merchants that previously announced deadlines will no longer go into effect.
‘Comment sections are not customers’: American Eagle brings back Sydney Sweeney amid celebrity push
Anatomy of how brands like American Eagle decide whether cultural backlash is noise — or a business threat.
How the MLS plans to convert World Cup interest into lasting soccer fandom
Alongside advertisers and publishers, the league hopes to use a rare opportunity to promote soccer in the U.S.