The result of rapid technological advances in mobile and electronic banking is that banks are closing branch offices at dramatically increasing rates in the USA.  In 2013, a total of 1,487 USA branch bank locations closed, with the total number of branch locations dropping below 95,000, the lowest total number in the USA in a decade.  Too offset closing branch offices, USA banks are ramping up mobile and online services, such as allowing customers to make deposits simply by snapping photos of checks with smartphones and emailing them.  Some banks now allow customers to transfer money to other customers via smartphones.  At Bank of America for example, nine percent of all checks deposited by customers in Q4 of 2013 came from snapping pictures on smartphones or tablet computers; that figure was up seven percent from the prior quarter.  Bank of America’s total number of branch bank locations dropped by 189 in 2013.  Not a single state in the USA reported an increase in the number of branch bank locations in 2013.  Florida led all states in the number of branch bank closures win 2013 ith 266, followed by Pennsylvania with 261.  Technology is rapidly changing the competitive landscape in banking, and many industries characterized by brick-and-mortar stores.

Source:  Saabira Chaudhuri, “Banks Leave More Branches,” Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2014, C1.