Local Bank branches with warm bodies to help you may be going the way of the dodo bird

Michael Alverson, who holds the office of president in this southern Michigan village, takes a certain pride in living in what he calls a "full-service" community. 

"We have a doctor, a vet, a grocery store, a place where you can get your hair cut and a place where you can get your car fixed," says Mr. Alverson. 

The one thing Athens doesn't have: a bank. After writing mortgages and taking deposits for nearly 17 years, Southern Michigan Bank & Trust SOMC +0.28% closed its Athens branch two years ago this month, leaving the 1,024 residents here without tellers and safe-deposit boxes for the first time since the Great Depression. 

Following years of nearly unchecked expansion, financial institutions across the U.S. are closing thousands of outposts, as pressures mount to cut costs and more customers embrace online and mobile banking. 

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Banks say they are closing branches because they are becoming too expensive to operate. Associated Bank, ASBC -1.65% which is the largest bank based in Wisconsin, estimates that each branch shutdown saves the company $300,000. A unit of Associated Banc-Corp, it closed 21 branches last year and is in the process of shutting another dozen.

Read the whole story HERE.

Call me old fashion..I like the old touchy-feely ways of the past. On-line banking, money transfers, etc...to me is OK as an option. But when the future seems to point to it being MORE THAN AN OPTION, it becomes IMHO an accident waiting to happen.

I had a question the other day about rates. I called an American (so I thought) Bank. went through several menus until a woman with a slight British accent said, 'May I help you'. She told me later that she was in India........How Global of that bank!

Here's a thought...What happens if there's a run on your bank and there's nowhere to run to?

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