Coffee, sculptures, and financial advice. Banks try to make new branches less intimidating

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After years of closing or mostly neglecting physical bank branches across the U.S., the nation’s largest banks are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on refurbishing old locations or building new ones, and in the process, changing the look, feel, and purpose of the local bank branch. Many of these branches are larger, airier, and meant to feel more comfortable for those walking in with difficult financial questions. Others are being designed as “third spaces” to allow local nonprofits or community representatives to hold workshops or seminars for customers or neighbors. They are a contrast to the marble-clad temples to finance built 50 or 75 years ago and the stale cookie-cutter branches that more recently cluttered suburban malls. “Coming into a branch can be intimidating. We’re now creating these spaces so everyone can feel welcome,” said Diedra Porché, the head of community and business development of consumer banking at JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPMorgan isn’t alone in designing branches that are focused less on sales and more on providing advice. Capital One opened its latest “café” in Union Square in May, a space that serves coffee and baked goods and allows anyone, Capital One customer or not, to sit inside the café and work and network. “Banking shouldn’t be that experience of someone sitting in a suit behind a desk talking about your loan application, but it should be someone who is sitting with you, offering to help you through those questions about money and finances,” said Jennifer Windbeck, head of Capital One’s retail bank channels and operations. Banks, such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo have been steadily closing branches since the 2008 financial crisis. They saw little need for their networks of thousands of physical locations when fewer Americans were entering a branch regularly for routine banking needs, and ATMs had largely replaced tellers. In the branches that remained, customers often noticed threadbare carpets and well-worn office furniture and cubicles. It seemed like the fate of the bank branch was sealed when the technological gains during the pandemic made it possible to buy a home or car without interacting physically with another human being. This article was provided by The Associated Press.