Fifth Third Bank will close 75 branches across the state this summer. This follows its acquisition of Comerica Bank in February.
Steve Davis, Fifth Third’s Michigan region president, said overlap between the banks made consolidation necessary after the $10.9 billion acquisition that was approved in January.
“When we put the two organizations together, we knew that we had a lot of overlap in our branch network,” Davis said. “In a number of cases, literally they share parking lots, so this was always part of the strategy.”
55 of the closing branches are former Comerica locations, while the other 20 are Fifth Third banks.
Following the closures, there will be 227 combined branches in Michigan, which exceeds the number of branches Fifth Third and Comerica had prior to the acquisition — 163 and 143, respectively.
Davis said even though some branches will close, customers from both banks will benefit from the acquisition.
“For the vast, vast majority of our customers, they are going to see immediate benefits from having better proximity, more options for their banking, and expanded availability for ATMs, expanded branches across the country if they’re traveling — it's going to be a huge positive for most of our customers,” Davis said.
Davis also said Fifth Third will attempt to retain employees of closed banks or offer them other opportunities within the company.
“Our goal is, as much as possible, where we have branches that are closing, is to move those employees into the receiving branches,” Davis said. “We want our customers to see a familiar face and have familiar service where people know their names.”
The branches are slated to close September 3 and 4, and Fifth Third will convert Comerica's customers onto their system over Labor Day weekend. Customers already have interchangeable access to each of the brands’ ATMs.
