Where Have All the Bank Branches Gone? “Deja View All Over Again.”
More than 3,000 bank branches have left rural towns and urban neighborhoods since the pandemic. NPR’s Scott Horsley, on Morning Edition (March 22) described the effects in the Southeast, where some towns have been left without a single bank to conduct their day-to-day business. It hurts the economy, and hurts the social fabric.
As I wrote, the situation is much like what we encountered in the early 1980s, when sky-high interest rates and the advent of ATMs emptied branches out of low-income New York City neighborhoods. But there is hope today, thanks to CDFIs like Southern Bancorp and Hope Credit Union and to a huge new federal appropriation that could make a real difference.
To read more: Deja View
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