More bank branches are on track to close soon in the Boise area, and some workers are losing their jobs.
Wells Fargo notified a federal bank regulator that it will close its branch at 4630 W. State St. in Boise’s Collister neighborhood and its branch at 1400 S. Vista Ave. in the Depot Bench neighborhood.
Separately, the bank also disclosed the layoffs of 55 workers at a Boise call center.
The Collister branch will close May 7 and the Vista branch May 9, a Wells Fargo spokesperson told the Idaho Statesman.
The bank also said in January 2024 that it would relocate its branch at 421 N. Orchard St. in Boise’s Morris Hill neighborhood. That branch is still open 14 months later, but it recently posted notices on the building that it would close.
The notices said the ATM there would remain open. The branch will close May 16, and its replacement, to be called the Overland and Orchard branch, will open May 19 at 5161 W. Overland Road, Suite 101, said Jessica Ngai, the bank’s communications lead for Idaho.
Ngai declined Wednesday to say how many employees would be affected by the changes, and how. She also declined to say how many employees the San Francisco bank has in the Boise area or in Idaho.
“Branches continue to play an important role in the way we serve our customers in combination with our mobile app, online website, and ATMs,” Ngai said by email. “We are actively investing in our branch network by opening new locations and refurbishing our entire network. As we optimize our branch network, we are focused on evolving our branch presence based on customer usage and the changing traffic patterns and retail landscape to best meet the banking needs of each community we serve.”
Wells Fargo closed three Idaho branches, including one in the Treasure Valley, between October 2023 and April 2024, according to FinanceBuzz. They were at: 10 E. Corporate Drive, Meridian. 114 E. Appleway, Coeur d’Alene. 320 A St., Idaho Falls.
Meanwhile, Wells Fargo disclosed to the state Labor Department in December that it would lay off 55 Boise employees effective Feb. 8.
Those employees worked at the bank’s Enterprise Complaints unit, a call center at 3033 W. Elder St., in an office-and-warehouse area next to Interstate 84 west of Vista Avenue.
The bank also is cutting hundreds of jobs in Oregon.
The Beaverton Valley Times, which serves Portland suburbs, reported in December that the bank would cut about 500 jobs by closing an office in Hillsboro and would lay off 221 workers in Salem, on top of 95 jobs previously cut in Washington County in 2024.
Other banks are retrenching, too, as customers rely increasingly heavily on digital banking.
“Banks are once again closing branches rapidly,” The American Banker, a trade publication, wrote in December.
It said there were fewer than 77,000 branches nationwide, down from nearly 100,000 in 2009. The Daily Mail in the United Kingdom examined closure notices that U.S. banks filed in January and early February and wrote: “Major US banks shut more than 100 locations in just three weeks as the local branch bloodbath continues.” The 20-year decline of Wells Fargo branches Even so, the latest closures still will leave 11 Wells Fargo branches operating in Boise, Meridian and Eagle, according to the bank’s store locator. In Canyon County, the bank still has two branches in Nampa and one in Caldwell. Based on Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data, the bank’s pending closures would leave 15 offices throughout the Boise metropolitan statistical area, which includes Ada, Canyon, Owyhee, Gem and Boise counties. That’s 44% fewer than the 27 that Wells Fargo had in 2004, when the area’s population was about one-third less than it is today. Wells Fargo is the second-largest bank in the Boise MSA, with $3.4 billion in deposits taking up 20.4% of the market, according to the FDIC. It trails only U.S. Bank, whose $4 billion represents 23.8%. Apps dominate consumer banking A survey taken for the American Bankers Association in 2024 found that more than half of U.S. consumers do their banking with mobile apps more often than any other method. Here’s how the survey said consumers most often a bank:
55% use apps. 22% use online banking via computer. 8% visit a branch. 5% use ATMs. 4% make telephone calls. About two-thirds of Generation Z and millennials use mobile banking apps most often, while 55% of Generation X customers do, the association said in a news release. Forty-one percent of baby boomers bank most often with their computers. Thirteen percent of boomers visit bank branches most often, compared with 4% of Gen Z and millennials. Lending scandals still shadow Wells Fargo The closures come as Wells Fargo gradually moves to put its era of lending scandals into the past. In January, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ended its consent order issued in 2022 over what the bureau said were “illegally assessed fees and interest charges on auto and mortgage loans,” as well as other problems. And on Feb. 4, the Federal Reserve called off two enforcement actions aimed at “deficient” banking practices dating to 2011, one involving mortgage lending practices and the other mortgage-loan servicing and foreclosures. In response to the Fed’s action, CEO Charlie Scharf said Feb. 4, “Today’s news is another important sign that we continue to make clear, meaningful progress to resolve our historical matters. … Wells Fargo is a different company today.”
But the bank remains restricted by a 2018 Fed order prohibiting it from increasing its assets. The enforcement action came in response to what the agency said were “widespread compliance issues.” Bank and credit-union openings in Boise area Despite the decline in branches, some banks and credit unions are still opening them in Ada and Canyon counties as the Valley grows. Financial-institution openings in 2024 and 2025 include: Idaho Central Credit Union’s new branch at 806 Saddle Ave. in Caldwell, which opened in August. First Federal Bank’s January opening of its 14th branch at 1217 2nd Street South in downtown Nampa. It is the Twin Falls bank’s third branch in the Treasure Valley. Oregon-based Rogue Credit Union’s planned opening of a branch in Caldwell sometime in 2025. Wells Fargo filed notice of the Collister and Vista branch closings in February with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/25559936-wells-fargo-customer-letter-vista-avenue-branch/?embed=1 https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/25559935-wells-fargo-customer-letter-collister-branch/?embed=1
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Read more at: https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/business/article301833594.html#storylink=cpy
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Read more at: https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/business/article301833594.html#storylink=cpy
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