--- title: After Years of Mass Closures, Brick-and-Mortar Banks Are Staging a Comeback description: The number of brick-and-mortar bank branches in the U.S. is expanding — as opposed to shrinking — for the first time in years. Here's why. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 507 covers: - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Julia Glum role: Managing Editor url: https://money.com/author/julia-glum/ bio: Julia Glum joined Money in 2018 and specializes in covering financial trends that affect everyday Americans' wallets. She also writes Dollar Scholar, a weekly newsletter that teaches young adults how to navigate the messy world of money. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2018 articles: 454 covers: - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - Newsweek - International Business Times - CBS News - Good Morning America - WUSA9 - Pix 11 - The New York Times - Mashable - The Washington Post - CNBC - Politico social: - https://x.com/superjulia - https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-glum published: '2026-10-14T11:40:50.000Z' section: Banking tags: - best banks - News word_count: 794 canonical: https://money.com/physical-bank-branches-comeback/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![People lining up at bank](https://img.money.com/2026/10/News-Bricks-bank-doing-well.jpg) After more than 15 years of mass closures, physical banks are coming back in vogue. For the first time since the Great Recession, the number of brick-and-mortar branches in the U.S. expanded for three consecutive quarters, accounting for a nine-month period of growth from October 2025 to June 2026, according [to an analysis of FDIC data](https://ncrc.org/bank-branch-trends-for-2026-2nd-quarter-continued-growth-in-the-southeast-and-southwest-metros/) by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. While the growth was modest — a net of roughly 110 new brick-and-mortar branches — and geographically uneven, the spell of widespread closures appears to have broken, if only momentarily. In an age where you can open all kinds of accounts — from checking to brokerage — with the tap of a button, the reversal may come as a surprise. But analysts say the want (and need) for face-to-face banking never really went away. “Many consumers and small businesses still appreciate having a relationship with the bank that understands their community,” Zain Tariq, senior analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence, tells Money. Physical bank locations — think: a counter, a teller and perhaps a lollipop — used to be the only way for most Americans to manage their money. Since the Great Recession, though, the rise of digital banking combined with a slew of bank failures and mergers have contributed heavily to the loss of branches. These days, thanks to their lower operating costs, online banks such as Ally and SoFi offer some of the highest annual percentage yields on [savings accounts](https://money.com/best-high-yield-savings-accounts/) and money market accounts. But there’s something to be said about walking into a physical bank and talking to a real person who lives locally and can help you with account issues or questions. “Not all battles can be won on rates,” Tariq says. For Money’s latest annual ranking of the Best Banks in the U.S., we reviewed hundreds of data points — not just rates — covering minimum deposit requirements, account fees and other features like customer service and convenience. [See which banks made the cut](https://money.com/best-banks/). ## In-person banking isn’t dead Relationship banking, as it’s called, is still important for many Americans. In fact, Tariq says it’s foundational for smaller local banks and credit unions, which thrive on maintaining connections with their communities. It’s also partially why some [major national banks](https://money.com/best-national-banks/) have returned to investing in brick-and-mortar locations. “It has been a long time since we could say bank branches were growing in this country,” Jason Richardson, senior director of research at the reinvestment coalition, wrote in the analysis. According to Richardson’s report, bank branches aren’t popping up uniformly across the U.S. They’re concentrated mostly in the [Southeast](https://money.com/best-banks-and-credit-unions-southeast/) and Southwest, while they are generally declining in most other regions. Florida and Texas are leading the growth by a large margin, with each state adding more than 50 branches over the year ending in June. Major cities like New York and San Francisco are hemorrhaging the most branches. The report noted that this follows post-COVID-19 migration patterns more broadly, as many Americans relocated from big cities to more affordable areas. Fueling the trend are commitments to open physical branches by several of the nation’s top banks. JPMorgan Chase plans to open 500 new branches total, [with 160 coming in 2026](https://media.chase.com/news/chase-to-open-more-than-160-branches-in-over-30-states-in-2026). Meanwhile, PNC is opening [300 new branches by 2030](https://pnc.mediaroom.com/2025-11-07-PNC-Bank-Increases-New-Branch-Openings-to-More-Than-300-by-2030), and Bank of America is wrapping up its [expansion of 165 new financial centers](https://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/content/newsroom/press-releases/2024/09/bofa-to-open-more-than-165-financial-centers-by-end-of-2026.html) by the end of the year. ## Branches build trust The convenience of digital banking is difficult to overstate. Banking apps and websites make the day-to-day management of your finances quick and easy (in most cases, that is). The biggest casualties of the move to online banking are in-store banks, such as the once-ubiquitous branches at the front of Walmart or Target stores. According to FDIC data, these types of physical locations are shuttering far faster and uniformly than full-service brick-and-mortar branches. The trend largely follows how people like to bank in modern life: Use an app for the simple tasks, like checking balances or cashing checks. But go in person for particularly difficult or sensitive ones, like check endorsements or dealing with the [ever-growing problem of identity theft](https://money.com/drivers-license-leak-identity-theft/). According to a [recent survey](https://www.santanderus.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Q2_2026_Middle_Income_Survey_Results_Final.pdf) from the bank Santander, 9 in 10 U.S. adults want to manage most tasks digitally but still have access to a physical branch for assistance. The survey underscored that people like the convenience of online banking, but physical locations help build trust. In a twist, a majority of respondents have more confidence in a [digital banking](https://money.com/best-online-banks/) provider that has physical locations. Perhaps surprisingly, that’s especially true for younger adults: 87% of Gen Z and 85% of millennials say they agree with the sentiment compared to 75% of boomers. With the next generation valuing the option to bank in person, brick-and-mortars are still far from obsolete. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/physical-bank-branches-comeback/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Banking", "item": "https://money.com/banking/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Banks", "item": "https://money.com/banks/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "After Years of Mass Closures, Brick-and-Mortar Banks Are Staging a Comeback" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/physical-bank-branches-comeback/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/physical-bank-branches-comeback/", "name": "After Years of Mass Closures, Brick-and-Mortar Banks Are Staging a Comeback", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2026-10-14T11:40:50.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/physical-bank-branches-comeback/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/physical-bank-branches-comeback/#breadcrumb" } }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "After Years of Mass Closures, Brick-and-Mortar Banks Are Staging a Comeback", "articleSection": "Banking", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2026/10/News-Bricks-bank-doing-well.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "News-Bricks-bank-doing-well" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. 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