Some credit unions are betting they can succeed where banks have failed.

Research firm SNL Financial reported banks and thrifts shut 2,267 branches in 2012. AlixPartners Consultants said it figures those closings pared the nation's bank branch list to some 93,000 locations. What's more, the firm said it expects the count to continue falling to 90,000 over the next decade, which would put it back to 2000 levels.

But people in small towns like Alburgh, Vt., are much more focused on the local picture. When People's United Bank closed its branch in the small community of about 2,000 people in April 2012, it left the border town with no brick and mortar bank presence.