Newsbreak, October 20, 2023, Pennsylvania Customers Disrupted As More Bank Branches Prepare To Shutter
Major banks continue to push customers toward online banking as they close locations across the United States.
Each week, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) releases a bulletin of banks set to close, and the list continues to grow. According to data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), approximately 8,000 banks were in operation in 2000, but by 2022, this figure was halved.
While some people do their banking online, many still prefer to visit a branch to conduct their finances, so these closures will cause some concern to some customers. In particular, bank closures have been hitting low-income and majority-minority communities.
CNBC reports that “according to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, one-third of the branches closed from 2017 to 2021 occurred in areas that were predominately lower-income and minority areas.”
