Major US banks closed a total of 1,043 branches over the course of last year, leaving communities with dwindling local services. 

The bloodbath of closures is also set to accelerate in 2025, resulting in a further 4.11 percent decrease by the end of the year, a new study from Self Financial revealed.  

Bank of America closed the most locations of any bank in 2024, filing notice to close 168 of its branches.  It was followed closely by US Bank, which also filed paperwork to shut 156 of its own locations.

The other major institutions that made up the top five for closures were Wells Fargo which closed 126 in the same period; Chase, which shut 103 and PNC, 76.   

The closures are registered with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and represent planned closures. This means they are likely to close but is not a final confirmation. 

The worst hit state last year was California which saw 127 local branches from different banks wiped out. 

The Golden State was followed by New York which lost 74 branches in the same twelve months, next to Texas, which lost 68.  ‘Retail bank closures in the US aren’t slowing, and in fact our research shows that the last time this many people relied on a local bank branch was in 1995,’ Darren Kingman from Root Digital who worked on the Self Financial study told DailyMail.com. 

‘There’s no doubt we’re moving towards a cashless society but this increase in people per bank branch and the fact over 200 million Americans still make cash deposits will only mean longer wait times in banks and a potentially a lower overall customer experience,’ Kingman explained. 

The closures come despite the fact that 45 percent of Americans still prefer to carry out their banking needs in person, a new survey carried out by GoBankingRates found.  

‘The shift towards online banking is growing more intense in 2025,’ GoBankingRates lead data content researcher Andrew Murray told DailyMail.com. 

‘Despite the trend towards online banking, our survey data shows more than half of Americans are concerned about the rising number of physical branches that have shut down in the past few years,’ Murray explained. 

‘Meanwhile, a whopping 76 percent says that the current banking system needs small or major changes.’ 

Further to this more than half of respondents said they were concerned about the rising number of physical bank branch closures over the last few years.

Meanwhile, new research recently revealed that the last physical bank branch could close in the US in 2041.

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