US Bank announces it will shut 19 branches in just one week - is YOUR branch affected?

US Bank filed to shut 19 branches in a single week this month.

It was by far the worst offender among five banks that notified their regulator between March 3 and 9 of plans to shut a total of 25 branches.

Citizens Bank and KeyBank also said they would shut two branches each - three of those were in Pennsylvania. Axiom and Bank of Hillsboro said they would shut one each.

Many of the US Bank closures were in rural locations - five were in Idaho and three were in Missouri. The remainder were in Arkansas, California, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Ohio and Wisconsin.

'US Bank's footprint includes Midwest and western mountain states with lots of smaller towns and wide open space,' said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.

US Bank notified its regulator of plans to shut some 19 branches in a single week 

Pictured is a US Bank location in St. Maries, Idaho, which is due to close, according to a recent bulletin filed by the bank's federal regulator

Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate

He added that even in rural areas banking services are increasingly shifting online. Cutting branches can save banks millions each year.

'Even among customers outside major metropolitan areas, routine transactions continue to migrate out of the branch and are being done digitally,' he said.

The week prior was unusually light on branch closures.

Bank of America notified its regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) that it would close only three.

Steven Reider, the founder of Bancography, an Alabama consulting firm that advises banks on branch planning said retail banking is undergoing 'a rural to urban conversion'.

Banks are consolidating around cities, placing more focus on dominating those markets fully.

For example, Chase is moving into Kansas City with force, Fifth Third is making similar moves into Charlotte and PNC is targeting Austin.

So far in 2024, Bank of America and US Bank have been among those cutting branches most aggressively.

In the first two months of the year, DailyMail.com analysis showed that banks had filed to close 222 branches. 

Bank of America, US Bank and Citizens collectively accounted for nearly half of those.

The average freestanding bank branch costs around $2.6 million a year - so being able to shut them and encourage customers to go online can lead to big savings.

Below are the closures for the past two full weeks for which the OCC has figures - February 25 to March 2 and March 3 to 9.

For branch closures reported in the rest of this year, click here.