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Article: More or Less? Branch Debate Rages.(UpFront News)
- Article from:
- Bank Investment Consultant
- Article date:
- July 1, 2009
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 SourceMedia, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Katie Kuehner-Hebert
The future-of-branching debate is back on. In one corner are the industry experts who forecast a post-meltdown reduction in the number of branches. In the other corner are those who argue that banks will have to add branches to whip up deposits.
The predictions vary widely-from roughly 10,000 closings to more than 1,000 additions over the next five years.
As of June 30 there were just over 99,000 U.S. bank and thrift branches, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Ken Thomas, the president of Branchlocation.com in Miami, says the number of branches in the country could top 100,000 in the next five years, ...