In North America, the European Union, and Central Europe & Baltics the number of branches is declining significantly.
However many point to JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America who announced plans last year to open new branches. But did they forget that JPM and BofA are not allowed to acquire banks to grow—so in their case, additional branches in lucrative areas makes sense.
And although there is no doubt that a branch currently is one of the ingredients in customer satisfaction, it’s far from being the most important one. Even with tens of thousands of branches, the banking industry lags in customer satisfaction—landing at a 14/24 in Net Promoter Score of all industries. Interestingly, the bank with the highest NPS score (78) is USAA with essentially zero branches.
So what is the future of bank branches in a digital-first world?