Wells Fargo closing 24 more branches, including two in Philadelphia area

April 21, 2021

Wells Fargo & Co. will close 24 more branches, including locations in Montgomery and Delaware counties, as part of its broader plan to cut billions of dollars in costs to keep pace with its rivals.

The impacted branches include its location in front of the King of Prussia Mall at 694 W. Dekalb Pike and another on the campus of Villanova University at 800 E. Lancaster Ave. Two Berks County sites in Shillington and Wyomissing will also close.

They are among a batch of locations San Francisco-based Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) filed to close this month with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Other sites are in Texas, Florida, California, Washington, D.C., Idaho, Oregon, South Dakota, Illinois, Montana, Iowa, North Carolina, Virginia, Minnesota and Washington state.

This is the latest batch of closings and brings the current total to 138 applications received from Wells by the OCC so far in 2021. Earlier this year, the bank announced plans to close locations at 5458 Germantown Ave. in Germantown and 2300 Snyder Ave. in South Philadelphia as well as another in Lancaster County.

Wells Fargo closed 329 of its 5,200 branches last year and has plans to shutter about 250 this year. CEO Charles Scharf told investors in July that the bank needs to shave off at least $10 billion in annual expenses, which amounts to 20% of its annual cost base, to rival efficiency at other banks.

Locally, the region’s largest deposit taker closed 12 locations in the Philadelphia area last year as well as another six combined in the Lehigh Valley, Berks County and the Jersey Shore. All but two came after Scharf’s announcement.

Since the FDIC’s annual deposit data was recorded last June 30, Wells Fargo has reduced its branch count in the immediate Philadelphia region from 172 to 161. When factoring in the broader region that includes Delaware, the Jersey Shore, the Lehigh Valley and Berks County, the bank has gone from 281 locations to 265.

The pace of bank branch closings has picked up significantly during the pandemic, as more customers have become comfortable with online and mobile banking platforms. Several banks with major Philadelphia-area operations are the most avid consolidators.

TD Bank recently filed to close 81 of its 1,223 branches, including 11 in this region. PNC closed 160 branches last year and plans to close at least another 120 this year. Citizens eliminated 50 branches in 2020 and 47 already in the first quarter of this year.

Since annual FDIC deposit data was released on June 30, Wells Fargo & Co. closed 367 of its 5,410 locations (almost 7%), Citizens Bank shuttered 62 of its 892 locations (7%), and PNC Bank closed 149 of its 2,324 branches (6%).

Here is the full list of local branches Wells Fargo has closed since the start of June 30, 2020:

    • 43 E. Main St., Norristown
    • 1131 N. 5th St., Perkasie
    • 8001 Frankford Ave., Philadelphia
    • 399 Bristol Pike, Croydon
    • 599 E. Lancaster Ave., St. David’s
    • 75 St. James Place, Ardmore
    • 500 Chesterbrook Blvd., Chesterbrook
    • 25 W. Skippack Pike, Ambler
    • 951 Trenton Road, Fairless Hills
    • 2701 West Chester Pike, Broomall
    • 500 Hurffville-Cross Keys Road, Sewell
    • 451 White Horse Pike, Atco
    • 201 Philadelphia Ave., Egg Harbor City
    • 2002 W. Liberty St., Allentown
    • 335 Main St., Emmaus
    • 1 N. Broadway, Wind Gap
    • 301 W. Main St., Kutztown
    • 1 W. Main Street, Mt. Joy

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

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