Update on the Chase/WaMu Branch Mergers

Back on in October I wrote about the potential branch-level fallout in the Bronx from the acquisition of Washington Mutual by JPMorgan Chase. I was able to identify 12 different sites across the borough where a Chase and WaMu branch were in very close proximity (see map).

After trying to find out which branches would actually shut their doors through the bank’s regulator (the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in this case), I was informed banks don’t even need to notify their own customers (let alone the public or the regulator) if a branch closing is due to a merger or acquisition. Seeing how most branch closings are for this reason, the regulation seems mostly useless.

Fortunately, through our friends at the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD), we’ve heard back directly from Chase regarding the closings. Apparently, the Bronx will lose 8 bank branches in the coming year due to this acquisition. While none of these closings will leave any neighborhood branchless, it will mean the bank to household ratio in the Bronx will get even worse (can the lines get any longer?). Let’s hope that other banks take over some of these soon-to-be-vacant branch sites.

Here are the WaMu bank branches being merged or consolidated (read: closed) into other Chase or WaMu branches due to the merger:

1. WaMu at 18 W Fordham Road
2. WaMu at 3454 Jerome Ave
3. WaMu at 1043 Morris Park Ave
4. WaMu at 3555 Johnson Ave
5. WaMu at 557 Melrose Ave
6. WaMu at 3492 E Tremont Ave
7. WaMu at 2700 E Tremont Ave
8. WaMu at 2178 White Plains Rd

If you bank at one of these branches, you've probably already been contacted by Chase. If you are looking for a new bank branch, you'll probably want to avoid these locations.

Here are the comments from Chase regarding the branch closings:

• Chase is mailing information to all affected customers about the nearest branch that can help them. We also will hand out similar information inside each branch.
• When making the consolidation decisions, Chase considered many factors, such as nearby branches, customer traffic at the branches, and whether a branch’s customers walked, took public transit or drove there.
• By the end of 2009, all former WaMu customers can conduct their business at any of 5,000 branches. At that point, all the branches will be branded Chase and both Chase and WaMu customers will have access to more branches than they do today.
• Customers already can withdraw cash or check their account balances without a fee at any of 14,000 Chase or WaMu ATMs around the country.
• Customers received a letter in January if their WaMu branch was consolidating by March 6. It also let them know the location of a nearby branch – WaMu or specially
  equipped Chase -- that can help them.
• Customers should continue using their WaMu checks and debit/ATM card and their same account numbers, even if their branch is consolidating into a nearby Chase branch. (That Chase branch will have a separate teller area for WaMu customer accounts.)
• By January 27, customers could find out quickly whether a WaMu branch was affected by going to wamu.com, clicking on “Locations” and entering their WaMu branch location.
• Customers will also receive advance notice when they will need a new debit card and
  checks.
• Chase branches will not be able to serve WaMu customers until systems are combined later this year, except where otherwise noted.

Could the Bronx Lose 13 Bank Branches?

As of this summer, the Bronx had 146 full service bank branches (source: FDIC), 10 more than it had a year earlier (plus a number of credit unions). That may sound like a decent number, but when I ran the numbers last year (when there were 136), our branch to household ration was at 1:3,443 -- dead last in the City, three times off Manhattan's pace (where everyone was complaining about too many bank branches), and lagging behind all 50 states (and, for good measure, Puerto Rico).

Also important to consider is that branches tend to cluster around each other: think of all the branches on Fordham Road and in Norwood on Bainbridge/204th and Jerome. Now how many branches are in between? Two. It's much worse in South Fordham where there aren't any branches until you get to Burnside Ave (where there happens to be a brand new Amalgamated Bank branch).

If you lived at Third Ave and E. 168th Street in Morrissania there wouldn't be a branch for nearly a mile away in any direction. The same would hold true if you lived around Southern Boulevard between Longwood Ave and E 149th Street. (See the map image below for "The Black Hole of Banking in the Bronx" where a densely populated square mile is isolated from any branch presence for at least a half mile away in every direction.)

Despite the presence of decent sized commercial strips in these areas, banks are very hesitant to open up new branches in areas that have no branches. Instead they'd rather open up on strips where they face major competition from other branches.

In addition to leaving large swaths of the borough without a branch (where fringe financial services like check cashsers and pawn shops have filled the void and thrived), this strategy leaves the borough vulnerable to branch closings when mergers and acquisitions take place. For instance, with WaMu's failure and acquisisition by Chase, it's very plausible we'll be out 13 branches in the near future. While the neighborhoods affected will still have at least one bank branch, it will undoubtedly lead to longer lines for a teller.

I've mapped out all the full service bank branches in the Bronx, and there are 12 areas highlighted where a Chase and WaMu branch are within a short walking distance of each other, including Fordham Road where there are two WaMu's and one Chase within that distance:
And finally, if you want to keep score on who's had the most bank branches in the Bronx as of June 2008, here were the standings with Chase and WaMu in the top spots:

30 - JPMorgan Chase Bank
20 - Washington Mutual Bank
14 - Capital One
13 - Citibank
11 - HSBC Bank USA
10 - Bank of America
9 - Ridgewood Savings Bank
5 - Banco Popular North America
5 - Emigrant Savings Bank
4 - Apple Bank for Savings
4 - Ponce De Leon Federal Bank
4 - TD Bank (Commerce)
3 - Amalgamated Bank
2 - Country Bank
2 - Hudson Valley Bank
2 - New York Community Bank
2 - New York National Bank
1 - CheckSpring Bank
1 - NorthEast Community Bank
1 - Signature Bank
1 - Sovereign Bank
1 - The Dime Svgs. Bank of Williamsburgh
1 - Wachovia Bank (Soon to be Wells Fargo?)

Note: I didn't count ATM only branches or Capital One's branch at the Roosevelt Campus.