The new bank branch: Internet cafés and rent-a-rooms - BusinessWeek

In Charlotte, N.C., residents like to joke that there's a church or bank branch on virtually every street corner—which is fitting, since both are viewed as houses of worship in a city that until a recent merger boasted two of the nation's five largest banks. Charlotte isn't alone in that regard, because during the housing boom of the past decade commercial banks everywhere threw up new branches as fast as they could. From 1990 to 2006, the number of bank branches in the U.S. roughly doubled, to more than 90,000—or one for roughly every 2,200 adults in the country.

But now that the housing bubble has burst, the banking industry is awash in too many branches—a problem it is looking to correct. On July 28, Bank of America (BAC) confirmed reports that it will close an unspecified number of its 6,100 branches over the next several years, though industry experts say a 5% to 10% reduction wouldn't be surprising. What's fueling the cutbacks is not just the drop in mortgage-generated business, but new technologies—introduced by the banks—such as Internet bill-paying and mobile banking, as well as the proliferation of automated teller machines that do far more than their predecessors...