Are Branches Really Dead Industry Report
The case against future branch growth is well documented. But are branches dead? Data from a comprehensive credit union industry study suggests the complete opposite: those who have added branches in the last five years significantly outperformed those who didn't and along every metric that matters.
If pundits and banking industry prognosticators are right, branches have been sitting on death row for a long time — “Just a matter of time,” they keep telling us. But decades have passed and the debate over the fate of branches still rages. Now with mobile banking renewing doubts in the brick-and-mortar channel, branch proponents have felt like there was little they could do but pray for the proverbial pardon.
Exoneration for banking’s venerated channel may have just arrived and in the form of a new study. The study, developed in partnership with The Financial Brand, compares performance metrics for credit unions that added branches against those that didn’t across a five-year period (2007-2012).