Banking Deserts: Bank of America's Branch Closures Abandon Underserved Communities

When Bank of America closed its last remaining branch in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago's South Side in August 2025, it left 97,000 residents — 94 percent of whom are Black — without a single major bank branch within a two-mile radius. The nearest BofA location is now a 40-minute bus ride away. Within months, a check-cashing outlet moved into a storefront two blocks from the shuttered branch, charging 3 percent of face value to cash payroll checks that Bank of America had previously cashed for free. "They didn't just close a branch," said Alderman Janice Williams. "They abandoned a community."

The Numbers Tell the Story

OPV analyzed FDIC Summary of Deposits data and OCC branch closure notifications from 2020 through early 2026. The findings are stark: Bank of America closed more than 700 branches during this period, reducing its physical footprint from approximately 4,300 to roughly 3,600 locations. While the bank announced new "financial centers" in select markets, the net effect was a significant contraction. More revealing is where closures occurred. Sixty-two percent of shuttered branches were in ZIP codes with median household incomes below $55,000. Forty-four percent were in majority-minority census tracts. By contrast, the bank opened or renovated branches in affluent suburbs of Charlotte, Dallas, and San Francisco during the same period.

The impact extends beyond individual convenience. A landmark 2024 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that when a community loses its last bank branch, small business lending in the area declines by 10 to 15 percent within two years. Home mortgage origination drops by a similar margin. Local businesses lose the relationship banking connections that facilitate lines of credit and equipment loans. The economic ripple effect undermines the financial foundations of already vulnerable communities, contributing to a self-reinforcing cycle of disinvestment.

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Regulatory Gaps

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency requires banks to notify regulators and the public 90 days before closing a branch, with a 30-day public comment period. But the OCC has no authority to block a closure, and community comments are advisory only. The Community Reinvestment Act requires banks to meet the credit needs of the communities they serve, but CRA evaluations focus on lending patterns and community development investments rather than branch presence per se. Bank of America received an "Outstanding" CRA rating in its most recent examination, despite the closure wave — a fact critics cite as evidence that the CRA framework is fundamentally inadequate.

Fighting for Access

Community organizations in affected neighborhoods are pursuing several strategies. Some are lobbying for postal banking — using U.S. Post Office locations to provide basic banking services — as a federal solution to banking deserts. Others are working to attract credit unions and community development financial institutions to fill the void. In the immediate term, advocates recommend that affected residents explore online banks with fee-free accounts and ATM reimbursements, and that community organizations host financial literacy workshops to help residents navigate digital banking tools. The fight for equitable branch access, however, remains fundamentally a policy challenge that individual consumer choices cannot solve.