Bank of America details plans to enter 9 new markets, even as it still closes branches

Audrey Elsberry
·2 min read
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Bank of America announced on Tuesday that it will open in nine new markets covering four new states by 2026.

By 2026, the Charlotte-based bank will be in Omaha, Nebraska; Louisville, Kentucky, Boise, Idaho, Birmingham and Huntsville, Alabama, Madison Wisconsin, Milwaukee, New Orleans and Dayton, Ohio.

The news comes two weeks after Aron Levine, president of preferred banking, detailed some of the new markets Bank of America would enter. Speaking at a Morgan Stanley conference, he said the bank would prioritize opening in the new markets, while pursuing a net reduction in bank branches.

The new markets represent areas where there are already clients using either Merrill, Bank of America’s wealth management division, business banking or a global commercial bank, said Felicia Lewis. She is executive director of expansion markets at Bank of America.

“We’ve got clients there already... and we’re adding the financial centers to that,” Lewis told The Charlotte Observer.

The first of these new markets are two branches in Omaha, which will open by the end of the year. By year’s end the bank will have opened 55 centers, nationwide she said, after opening 58 last year.

Bank of America is expanding into nine new markets in four new states: Alabama, Louisiana, Wisconsin and Nebraska.
Bank of America is expanding into nine new markets in four new states: Alabama, Louisiana, Wisconsin and Nebraska.

Reducing bank branch numbers

Despite the openings, the bank’s current strategy is to shrink its physical presence and focus on its 56 million digital users, closing two branches for every new one that opens, Levine said, according to a transcript of his remarks at the Morgan Stanley conference.

Branches that closed temporarily during the pandemic will remain closed, although the continual closing of branches will be more gradual than the 525 closed in the past two years, according to Levine.

Reducing in-person facilities reflects a decrease in in-person transactions, Levine said, as people continue to shift to online banking.

There is no end date to the continual closure of financial centers, Lewis said.

By the end of this year, Bank of America will have renovated 2,500 of its branches to have a total of 3,900 modern financial centers, according to a bank news release.

The renovations prioritize offices and meeting spaces for those who need to talk to representatives in-person.

“People will drive a little longer, they’ll make more appointments to go talk to someone about their financial life about a mortgage, about a small business,” Levine said. “And so you can change the... nature of why a financial center exists. It’s gone from transactional to relationship to a broader, more sophisticated set of conversations.”