Serving Small Business Members’ Credit Needs

My youngest recently graduated from college and now has a full time job (sigh of relief). She is now faced with the need to change her account from college checking to regular checking. I told her she may need to stop by a branch to make the change. She responded as if I had asked her to walk barefoot across burning coals. Visit a branch? That’s absurd!

And so it goes for the next generation of members for credit unions. Banks are closing or planning to close branches on a regular basis. SNL Financial reported 332 branches were closed during the first quarter of 2015. Bank of America recently stated it had closed 1,400 branches as of June 2015. JP Morgan reported in February its plan to close 300 branches. The reason is the rise of mobile banking capabilities and a customer base all too eager to use them.

How does this impact small business members? The old rule of thumb was that 60% of your small business members would be within two miles of your branch, and within a five mile radius it would cover 90% of your small business members. Branches used to rule the small business segment! But given branch closures, how are we addressing access to small business credit?