Santander notified the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency last week that it would be closing 18 U.S. branches by August, the regulator’s website shows.
The affected branches, which comprise 4.5% of the Spanish bank’s roughly 400 U.S. locations, are strewn throughout the Northeast and are set to close between July 31 and Aug. 21. Six locations in Massachusetts will close, as well as four in New Jersey, four in Pennsylvania, two in New York and one each in New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
“Santander Bank continues to refine its branch footprint and retail presence, including introducing new formats and investing in digital capabilities to better accommodate our customers and meet their evolving needs,” a spokesperson told Banking Dive.
Santander’s U.S. digital bank Openbank, which launched in October, is on the rise. In February, the platform hit $2 billion in deposits, the bank announced.
“Our aim is to become a national, digital bank with branches and reaching this deposit milestone at record pace is a testament to our customer-obsessed mindset, commitment to innovation, and global connectivity,” Swati Bhatia, head of retail banking, said at the time. “We are uniquely positioned to provide U.S. consumers with the digital banking experience of a FinTech and the strength and stability of a leading global bank.”
The closure plan follows 95 branch closures in the U.K., announced in March and set to take place in June. A bank spokesperson attributed the U.K. closures to “a rapid movement of customers choosing to do their banking digitally,” according to the BBC.
The industry’s de-emphasis on branch banking and shift toward digital banking has been in the works for several years.
The pace of branch closures in the U.S. ticked upward in the first quarter of 2025, according to S&P Global, led by 50 net branch closures for U.S. Bank and 23 net branch closures for Wells Fargo. Flagstar had 16 net closures in the first quarter, and has planned 60 for the year.
Dozens of other closures are slated for the upcoming months, including 38 TD branches to be shuttered by June 5.
