from dispatch.com
Fifth Third Bank will close 100 branches over the next year and will cancel plans for 30 more offices in response to a rise in mobile and online banking.
That represents 8 percent of the Cincinnati-based bank’s 1,303 offices. Locations slated to close were not immediately announced.
The changes are part of an effort to improve efficiency and focus on how Fifth Third customers prefer to do business — which increasingly is via mobile devices, the company said.
“Meeting the evolving preferences of how our customers interact with us is our top priority,” said Kevin Kabat, Fifth Third Bancorp CEO, in a statement.
“Over the past several years, we have made significant improvements to our mobile-banking options and our sales and staffing models, and plan to tailor our branch network in concert with these changes.”
The bank’s move is expected to save it about $60 million a year in operating costs.
Mobile and ATM deposits account for one-third of the bank’s consumer-deposit transactions, according to the company’s 2014 annual report, and it has more than 900,000 mobile-banking customers.
Customers of branches that close will have access to other offices nearby, and most affected employees will have the chance to transfer to another branch, said bank spokesman Larry Magnesen
Fifth Third will continue to update its mobile applications and invest in its remote-banking services.
“As we’ve made it more comfortable, easier and friendly, our adoption rate (of online and mobile-banking options) has accelerated,” Magnesen said.
It’s part of an industry trend.
“The day-to-day interaction with banks is becoming less and less necessary, and it’s decreasing foot traffic,” said Alex Matjanec, co-founder of MyBankTracker and an online banking specialist.
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Fifth Third Bank has 10 branches in Williamson County
See Also: Bank of America to Close Drive Thru Services