Six banks filed to close almost 40 branches last week leaving millions of Americans without access to vital financial services, with Wells Fargo alone axing 13 locations.

Wells Fargo has been a leader in the closure of branches around the country, having closed 160 in the first half of the year, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

And in the latest filings to its regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), it indicated that five would now close in California, three in Florida, and another five elsewhere in the country.

A filing from regional bank KeyBank to close ten branches was unique in that nine of those ‘branches’ were in fact ‘charters’ that allowed a handful of private customers to make deposits, a spokesperson for the bank told DailyMail.com.

‘KeyBank has made the business decision to close out nine charters for Key Private Bank offices,’ said spokesperson Meg Lower in a statement to DailyMail.com.

‘These charters allowed Key Private Bank to collect deposits from clients in its offices at these various locations. As part of the process of closing the charter, we filed the appropriate notice with the OCC last week which was labeled as a branch closure.’

Unlike Wells Fargo, whose branches are scattered among a number of states, KeyBank is limited to a handful in the Northeast and Northwest. Four of KeyBank’s closures were in Ohio.

Also to notify of closures this week were US Bank, Citizens, Chase and Associated Bank, with seven, three, two and one proposed respectively. 

Associated is headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and has 200 branches throughout Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota.

Source