The ever-changing nature of online technology claimed another victim as the Cheney branch of Bank of America officially closed its doors at the end of the business day Tuesday, July 16. The move leaves Cheney with three financial institutions that are operating physical branch locations: Cheney Federal Credit Union, Spokane Teachers Credit Union and Banner Bank.
In an email, Bank of America regional media relations manager Britney Sheehan said the move comes because “many clients both in the Cheney area and across the country have adopted our online and mobile bank offerings because of the convenience they provided.” With more customers doing their daily banking online rather than making trips to branches, those locations have become more involved in less frequent customer needs such as retirement planning or securing loans.
Sheehan said Cheney is being consolidated into the Spokane & Eastern financial center, located at 601 W. Riverside Ave. in Spokane. Cheney customers can continue to use the walk-up ATM at the former branch location at 421 1st Street for the foreseeable future.
“Spokane & Eastern is a full-service retail banking locations,” Sheehan said. “There will be no impact to client accounts, which they can access at any financial center or ATM as well as our mobile and online banking platforms.”
Sheehan said the bank began replacing all of its 16,000 ATMS with the latest generation of technology last year, allowing clients to do more banking transactions that they might normally do in a branch or at home through the bank’s mobile banking app — another reason for the branch closing.
“While the ability to make credit card payments at the ATM only launched within the last year, we’ve already seen a 23.2 percent migration from OTC transactions to the ATM,” Sheehan said.
Sheehan added that that staff at the Cheney branch have all been “offered other positions in the company.” A branch official in Cheney confirmed this during a brief phone call on Monday.
“Nobody is getting let go,” the official, who asked not to be named since they were not authorized to speak with the media, said.
Bank of America’s move in closing Cheney and other branches mirrors moves of other large banks that are moving away from traditional banking methods in favor of more electronic means. In a July 2018 story on CNN Business, reporter Matt Egan said that Bank of America deposits made on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets were beginning to outpace those made at branches.
“The rapid adoption of mobile banking has allowed big banks to massively shrink the number of expensive branches they operate,” Egan said.
Bank of America’s vast network of branches fell to 4,411 at the end of June 2018, compared with 4,542 a year ago. The company has 1,720 fewer branches than it did in June 2008, a 28 percent drop
At the same time, Bank of America’s active mobile banking users jumped by 11 percent to 25.3 million over the past year.
“Our clients increasingly prefer to do their banking via their mobile device,” Sheehan said. “In 2007, we launched our mobile banking app, and 10 years later we have over 27 million mobile users.”
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
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