Dive Brief:

• Bank of America opened its first Wisconsin retail branch Wednesday in Madison, followed by another branch Thursday in Milwaukee, with plans to open 17 more branches statewide through 2030, according to a spokesperson.
• The 19 new branches will create roughly 130 jobs throughout the state, the bank said in a press release. This is on top of the 170 people employed in Wisconsin within the bank’s Merrill Lynch, business banking and global corporate banking arms, which already have a presence there.
• The bank will enter Louisiana and Alabama next year, with 10 branches slated for the Birmingham and Huntsville, Alabama, areas starting in early 2027, and eight in the greater New Orleans area starting in the second half of the year.

Dive Insight:

The branch openings represent next steps in Bank of America’s long-standing $5 billion branch expansion plan which began in 2016.

“Our clients do more and more of their banking digitally, but when they're buying a home, starting a business or planning for retirement, they want to sit down with someone they trust,” Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said in a prepared statement. “That's why we keep building. Each new financial center in Wisconsin, Alabama and Louisiana is a commitment to the clients, employees and communities we serve there.”

Competitors JPMorgan Chase, PNC, TD and others are expanding their physical footprints. Banks opened more branches than they closed for three recent consecutive quarters for the first time since 2009, according to data from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

More than 95% of Bank of America client transactions are completed on the bank’s app, but clients visit their local branches for “more complex financial needs,” the bank said Thursday. Clients made around 10 million appointments to meet with specialists this year, the bank said.

In addition to new branches, Bank of America has renovated about 400 existing locations in 2026 and will renovate 300 more in the coming months.

There are 75,859 total bank branches nationally, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. This tally is significantly higher than a 2020 projection by the fintech Self Financial, which estimated that there could be fewer than 40,000 branches in the U.S. by 2027.

But branches have been reimagined of late, with new outposts logging a smaller physical footprint than old branches, along with integrated digital features. And banks have seen a business benefit from the updates: Wells Fargo saw a lift in its Net Promoter Scores for refurbished branches, an executive said last year.

“A financial center is more than a place to bank. It’s a place where clients can meet with a specialist, talk through their goals and get personalized guidance for what comes next,” Holly O’Neill, Bank of America’s president of consumer, retail and preferred, said in a prepared statement. “As we modernize our centers, our use of innovative technology is central to how we build relationships and support clients through important financial decisions.”