Three community banks have announced plans to close branches ahead of reporting second-quarter financial results.
CB Financial Services in Carmichaels, Pa.; Mercantile Bank in Grand Rapids, Mich.; and Nicolet Bankshares in Green Bay, Wis., said they will shutter a total of 12 branches to reduce costs.
The $1.3 billion-asset CB Financial said it will close two branches, one each in Monessen, Pa., and Wheeling, W.Va. The company did not disclose the savings tied to the closings, which are expected to take place at the end of September.
CB Financial said it plans to retain all the employees at the branches. It said the Monessen branch has been closed since mid-May.
“Transaction counts in all branches are declining, especially in light of measures taken due to COVID-19,” Barron McCune Jr., CB Financial’s president and CEO, said in a Tuesday press release. “The added convenience and ease of transacting business without needing to come into a branch has become so popular with customers that it has reduced usage of some branch locations.”
The $3.7 billion-asset Mercantile plans to close three branches in the fourth quarter in the Michigan communities of Alma, Ionia and Lakeview. The moves will include staff reductions.
Mercantile said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it expects to incur a pretax charge of $300,000 in the second quarter to cover severance payments. It plans to record a $1.5 million charge in the fourth quarter when the branches are closed.
The closings should save Mercantile $700,000 in annual pretax expenses.
The $3.7 billion-asset Nicolet disclosed on its website that seven branches slated to close temporarily will not reopen. It did not say how much it expects to save from the permanent closings of the branches, which make up a fifth of its network.
“During the temporary closures, we helped our customers find good alternatives to visiting these locations,” the company said. “Our customers responded well to the change, which helped confirm that banking with Nicolet matters more to our customers than the physical location of the office.”
Nicolet recently
