READ THIS NEXT: Grocery Stores Including Stop & Shop Are Closing Locations, Starting Jan. 2. In July, PNC announced plans to close approximately 135 in-store locations. According to the Pittsburgh Business Times, all of these branches were located inside grocery stores, including 127 in Giant Food and Stop & Shop supermarkets throughout Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, and Washington, D.C. The remaining eight branches were all in ShopRite stores in Pennsylvania, with closures beginning in October. As it turns out, brick-and-mortar bank closures are part of an ongoing national trend, as more customers shift to mobile and online banking. Shutting down locations inside retail establishments is a separate but related trend, the Pittsburgh Business Times explained in July, and financial institutions are closing these branches at an even faster rate. PNC’s latest round of closures will affect even more of its customer base, including those who frequent traditional and in-store branches. According to the Dec. 10 weekly bulletin from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), PNC Bank has plans to close 32 locations in early 2023. By the Pittsburgh Business Times’ calculations, this brings the total number of branches to be closed to 77. Banks are required to notify the OCC at least 90 days in advance of closures. Because the latest filings were from the time period period between Dec. 4 and Dec. 12, the earliest that these branches could close is in March.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb According to the Pittsburgh Business Times, two locations in the Pittsburgh metro area have confirmed they will be closing at 3 p.m. on March 17, 2023. PNC is the sixth-largest bank in the U.S., according to NerdWallet. As of September, the bank had 2,600 branches in 28 states, but that number is steadily declining. Per the OCC, Virginia and Maryland will say goodbye to the most PNC branches, as six are slated to close in each state. Alabama, Texas, and Pennsylvania are each losing four locations, while Indiana will lose three. Two PNC branches in Illinois are being axed, as are individual locations in Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina. According to the Pittsburgh Business Times, 11 of these closures are additional locations inside of grocery stores. Street addresses and cities are listed on the OCC bulletin. In a statement to the Pittsburgh Business Times, a spokesperson for PNC confirmed that multiple factors were considered when deciding which locations would be shut down. “PNC recognizes that branches continue to play an important role for many customers when it comes to conducting certain transactions and holding important in-person financial conversations with our banking experts,” the spokesperson said. “That is why we routinely evaluate our branch network, together with our other available methods of banking, to determine if we are most effectively meeting our customers’ needs.” It’s not all bad news, either, as the banking chain also confirmed that it will be opening eight branches as well. New locations will be established in Atlanta; Houston; College Park, Maryland; Doral, Florida; and in Alexandria and Reston, Virginia, according to the Dec. 10 bulletin. In November, individual PNC branches in Springfield, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., were also approved to open.
