Local branches not affected by BancorpSouth closings
Published 3:48 pm Wednesday, May 11, 2011
BancorpSouth, Inc. announced Tuesday that it will close 23 underperforming bank branches in six states, including Alabama, as part of a plan to consolidate.
According to Faith Black, regional sales and marketing manager, only one of the 29 branches located in Alabama will be affected by the closings. While Black did not say which branch in Alabama will be closed, she did say that the closings would not affect the branches in Greenville, Fort Deposit, Hayneville or Burkeville.
The company plans to release a list next week of the branches slated for closing.
Sam Cooper, division president for BancorpSouth located in Fort Deposit, confirmed that the branches in Butler and Lowndes County will not be impacted by the closings.
“These closing will not affect any of the branches in our area,” Cooper said. “There are only 23 branches nationally out of 312 closing and we’re not on that list.”
The branch optimization plan, subject to regulatory approval, is the result of an internal study that measured, among other factors, the volume of business conducted at the locations, the Tupelo, Miss.-based bank said in a news release.
The bank expects the closing to save $4.4 million a year.
The bank’s rapid growth in the past five years “created the need to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of BancorpSouth’s branch delivery system across our eight-state footprint,” Aubrey Patterson, BancorpSouth chairman and CEO, said in a news release. The resulting branch consolidation and closure plan will help ensure that we are utilizing an efficient and productive branch delivery platform, without detracting from the service and access we provide our clients and communities.
Along with the closing in Alabama, branches in Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas and Missouri will also be closed. BancorpSouth also operates branches in Florida and an insurance office in Illinois.