B of A could close 600 branches

TEXT OF STORY

Steve Chiotakis: We could be seeing some cutbacks coming in retail banking
at one of the nation’s biggest financial institutions. Bank of America is reportedly thinking about closing some branches. Marketplace’s Mitchell Hartman has more.

Mitchell Hartman: The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank plans to shut down as many as 10 percent of its neighborhood branches. That works out to about 600 nationwide.

A report in this morning’s Wall Street Journal, quotes sources who were at a Bank of America investors’ meeting last week. The Journal says Bank of America executives think customers want to do more banking on their computers and smart phones, so they don’t need a physical branch as much.

B of A expanded rapidly in the 1990’s, even as its competitors were shutting down locations. The financial giant now has more than 6,000 branches coast-to-coast. It’s recently been overtaken on the ground by Wells Fargo, following that bank’s takeover of Wachovia. Wells Fargo says it has no plans to close branches.

I’m Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace.