BY TIMOTHY LAROCHE
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CLAREMONT — Following nearly three years of under-performance, a local bank will close one of its branches this summer, opening the door for a reallocation of efforts.
Claremont Savings Bank announced this week that the company’s branch at 148 Charlestown Road will close on June 29. According to President and CEO Reggie Greene, the decision to close the branch came after an analysis of the branch’s usage found that it consistently unperformed relative to the bank’s other locations.
“The banking world has changed, and the world has changed,” Greene said Tuesday. “It just wasn’t generating the traffic to keep it open.”
In addition to the company’s flagship office at 145 Main St. in Claremont, bank officials say they will continue operating branches at 356 Washington St. in Claremont, 135 Main St. in Charlestown and 85 Main St. in Springfield, Vermont.
“We have three branches in Claremont right now,” Greene said. “That was one too many.”
The Charlestown Road branch opened on April 10, 2015 with a “technology focused” customer-service model, including two ATM machines. While Greene said that the company has not yet found specific positions for the branch’s two employees, he noted that “they are very good employees” and that they would have an opportunity to “migrate” to the bank’s other branches. The ATM machines in the Charlestown Road branch lobby will remain open after the closing.
Regulations from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, an independent agency that aims to secure consumer confidence in the banking system, requires banks to regularly report deposits. Recent estimates from the FDIC peg Claremont Savings Bank as hosting nearly half of all deposits made in Charlestown and two-thirds of those in Claremont, Greene said.
Although Greene did not have specific numbers on hand on Tuesday, he said that the Charlestown Road branch had been under-performing relative to the bank’s other branches. The branch saw fewer new accounts than the other locations and fewer customers on a daily basis.
“It was substantially below our other branches,” Greene said.
Despite the “negative impact” that the branch closing, Greene said that the move also gives the company an opportunity to reallocate resources to better-performing branches. For instance, alongside the closing of the Charlestown Road location, the better-performing Washington Street branch will see expanded hours. Beginning April 28, the Washington Street branch will open from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturdays.
“We’re going to try to put resources in our other branches,” Greene said.
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