Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Bank of America (BAC) Eyeing Closing 10% of Branches

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) said they're looking closely as closing up to 10 percent of its 5,800 banking branches, according to Joe Price, BofA’s head of consumer banking.

Price said at Bank of America's Investor Conference 2011, "Don’t be surprised to see a 10 percent reduction or slightly less than that over the next few years."

While in some strategic markets the giant bank may add some branches, the migration of consumers to the Internet to do their banking is cutting back on the need for so many branches, said the bank.

He said consumers are increasingly using branches as a place to get advice about specific problems rather than doing most of their transactions there.

Bank of America, which is the largest U.S. bank as measured by assets, holds $2.27 trillion as of the end of 2010. Next is JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), which held $2.12 trillion in assets at the end of 2010, Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) held $1.91 trillion and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) held $1.26 trillion.

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