A US bank is now making a surprising branch closure by late September, leaving only two locations left in its area, sources confirm.
Santander is closing one of its bank branch locations in Connecticut by September 19.
One of the three Santander branches in West Hartford will be closing its doors for good on September 19, according to Patch.com.
The move was confirmed last week in a filing to federal regulators.
While the brick-and-mortar location will be shuttering, the bank’s ATM at the Boulevard branch will remain active, a Santander spokesperson confirmed to the outlet.
Meanwhile, the rest of the services at the Boulevard location will move to another Santander location in West Hartford.
Just two miles away is the Farmington Avenue branch, which the Boulevard branch will merge with.
The other remaining Santander site is on Main Street.
Meanwhile, the bank also operates a handful of ATMs in West Hartford inside CVS Pharmacies.
The latest closure comes as use habits have continued to change, reducing the need for brick-and-mortar locations.
Santander confirmed to Patch.com that more customers are using online services rather than in-store.
The closure of the West Hartford location marks the 11th closure of a Santander branch in Connecticut since 2019, per CT Insider.
This trend is seen nationwide, with numerous banks citing switching to online services as a reason for closure.
According to FDIC data, the number of open branches across The Constitution State has gradually dwindled since 2018.
Banks operating in the state dropped by 16% between June 30, 2018, and 2023, according to data seen by the Hartford Business Journal.
On June 30, 2018, FDIC data showed that banks across Connecticut had 1159 active branches compared to 973 by the same date in 2023.
Santander has been one of the more active banks in culling branches across the state, cutting its footprint from 32 branches in 2014 to 15 by 2023, per FDIC data.
It comes as the company “embarks on a global transformation to become a digital bank with branches,” Santander’s executive chair, Anna Botin, said at an annual meeting in Madrid in March.
In the first two months of 2024, over 220 bank branches closed across the country, according to data from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Bank of America, US Bank, and Citizens Bank topped the list after shuttering almost 100 branches collectively, with 92 closures in just eight weeks.
While this pace has slowed, mass closures are ongoing, with US Bank announcing the closure of seven locations in just one week.
Joining the move was Bank of America, with six closures, and Chase, with two.
The 15 closures in Illinois, New Jersey, California, and Wisconsin were announced as each bank filed reports with the OCC in the first week of July.
Last month, TD Bank also confirmed a slew of closures across the East Coast, with more set to go by the end of the year.
Over 400 national bank branches have shuttered this year as online banking takes over, and companies choose to make savings by closing underperforming branches.
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Also Read: A Massive US Bank is Now Closing Credit Cards
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A banker is now convicted for stealing money from customers while working at Bank of America over a 10-year period.
The personal banker was arrested after her years-long scam, resulting in nearly $300,000 being stolen, came to light.
Police in Seneca, South Carolina said they received a report in 2013 about missing money from an account with Bank of America.
The victim, who also reported the incident to the Customer Service department, told police he was missing around $30,000.
Investigators worked with Bank of America for several weeks after the crime was reported and learned that an employee who had been stealing money from several people in Oconee County.
The police said the victims would use the Bank of America location in Seneca as their primary bank and Bobbi Cortese was their personal banker.
Seneca Police investigators and the US Secret Service spent nearly a decade doing more interviews.
Meanwhile, Bank of America was given time to complete an internal investigation.
It was revealed that Cortese had stolen nearly $300,000 from four people while working at the bank.
Some of the money was in the victims’ bank accounts for life insurance payouts related to the deaths of their spouses.
Others had a lifetime of earnings that was supposed to be used for their retirement, said police.
Cortese would open accounts under the victims’ names without their knowledge or consent and would perform a “shell game.”
This is when a scammer uses the money from one victim to replace what she stole from another victim.
After investigating further, police said Cortese forged several documents and issued them to the victims to hide the theft.
She committed these acts for about four years while working at the Bank of America, said police.
Cortese was arrested in May 2023 and charged with four counts of breach of trust and two counts of forgery.
She was later fired by the bank, reports The-Sun.
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Also Read: A Massive Bank Now Freezes Money From Direct Deposits
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