TCF Financial Corp. said Wednesday it will close a downtown Minneapolis branch and 37 branches in Chicagoland grocery stores by the end of March. About 200 workers will be affected, but some are expected to land at other TCF locations, officials said.
The move comes after a recent review of its network of branches that was designed "to determine how best to deploy its resources," the Wayzata-based bank said in a statement.
In a phone interview Wednesday, TCF spokesman Mark Goldman said that since the advent of online banking, automatic bill paying and bank cellphone apps, "brick-and-mortar locations are not being frequented [by customers] as much as they used to be."
TCF said it will take a pretax charge of $7.6 million in its fiscal fourth quarter to account for costs related to closing the physical bank branches and related job cuts.
The branch at 801 Marquette Av. S. in downtown Minneapolis is in a four-story building next to the TCF Tower, a 17-story building built in 1981. The company will continue to lease offices in both buildings for other operations.
TCF's retail customers in downtown Minneapolis will still have access to a branch in the IDS Center, less than a block from the branch being closed.
In Chicago, the company is scaling back on the number of branches it operates within Jewel-Osco grocery stores, from 155 to 118.
TCF said it will expand its ATM network in Chicago by adding 52 machines to elevated train stations throughout the city.
The shutting of the Jewel-Osco branches is an about-face from 1997, when TCF aggressively expanded by taking over 76 Jewel-Osco supermarket bank branches in the Chicago area. The locations were previously owned by Bank of America.
Between April 1995 and July 1998, TCF had opened 135 branches, with 119 in supermarkets. At the time, CEO Bill Cooper said, "We believe that over the long run, opening new branches is more profitable than growing through acquisitions."
But much has changed in 15 years. TCF is now investing in more technology to help customers bank the way they want. In addition to new ATMs, TCF recently created two new phone banking apps and will upgrade its online banking platform next year, Goldman said.
Dee DePass • 612-673-7725
Evan Ramstad • 612-673-4241
