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Banks are growing increasingly confident in the capabilities of online banking, according to Steven Reider, the founder and president of Bancography, an Alabama-based consulting firm that advises banks on branch planning and strategies. That confidence can lead to significant savings since the average freestanding bank branch costs around $2.6 million a year. In just two months, Bank of America's 41 closures might have saved it almost $100 million. .....And now, credit unions are playing a more significant role than ever before - offering very similar services to traditional banks and eating up a share of the market. Unlike banks, their...

Major US banks are continuing to close branches across the US, leaving an increasing number of Americans without access to basic financial services. Bank of America axed 21 branches in the first week of October, according to a bulletin published by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on Friday. Wells Fargo shuttered 15, while US Bank and Chase reported closing nine and three respectively. In total, some 54 locations had either closed or were scheduled to close between October 1 and October 7. Of the overall closures, three were in Louisville in Kentucky. Eight of the 21...

he bank shakeout is about to pick up steam. So says Meredith Whitney, the analyst who made headlines around this time three years ago by predicting the demise of Citi's (C) dividend. Whitney predicts in a report released Monday afternoon that profit-strapped U.S. banks will close 5,000 branches over 18 months. That would amount to about 5% of bank offices, and would mark a new twist in a decades-long consolidation process. There were more than 12,000 U.S. banking institutions as recently as 1992, but deregulation and global competition have fed the rise of megabanks like Bank of America (BAC) and...