Banks across the country are scrambling in response to rising COVID-19 infections and exposures among their employees, temporarily closing some branches or switching to drive-thru service as the omicron variant takes hold.
The improvisation is nothing new for the industry, which hustled last year to provide banking services at the start of the pandemic. But the recent surge in cases has prompted executives at banks of all sizes to revisit their emergency playbooks and again shift gears.
Maryland-based Howard Bank has temporarily closed two of its branches, and it has switched to drive-thru service at most branches. The bank is down to about two employees per branch, with some staffers out for the holidays and others suddenly quarantining due to COVID exposures.
“Our customers are getting the service they need. They just might be getting it in a different way than they're used to,” Drew McKone, chief deposit officer at Howard Bank, which operates in Baltimore, Annapolis and surrounding areas, said in an interview Thursday.
Large banks have not been immune from the impact of rising caseloads. Bank of America has had to temporarily shut down a few branches, according to its website, which instructs customers to visit a nearby ATM or use its digital banking tools.
"Like all financial institutions across the country, we’re doing our best to ensure the health and safety of our teammates and associates," a BofA spokesperson said in an email Thursday. "On occasion, we will temporarily close locations, and those occur where we’re seeing fewer visits, or our staffing is not sufficient for a financial center to remain open."
The spokesperson said that when a location closes, BofA works to reopen it as soon as possible.
JPMorgan Chase said Thursday that it has also had to close a small number of branches, pointing to staffing shortages and municipal orders that require unvaccinated employees to stay home. Most Chase branches are open, the bank said, and customers affected by temporary closures can use ATMs, as well as the bank’s website and app.
Most of Wells Fargo’s branches remain open, though the bank closed a few locations with plans to “resume operations as soon as possible,” the San Francisco bank said Thursday in a statement.
“Branches continue to play an important role in the way we serve our customers, and we continue serving customers through our branches while prioritizing safety amid the COVID-19 pandemic,” Wells Fargo said.
Wells added that it is “sorry to inconvenience any customers who may do their banking at one of our temporarily closed branches.” It noted that affected customers can visit nearby branches and ATMs, and use digital options.
Amplify Credit Union in Austin, Texas, has five branches, one of which has been closed since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. Nearly two years later, the credit union is beset by staffing challenges.
“We are extremely short-staffed,” said President and CEO Kendall Garrison.
The staffing levels at Amplify have been stressed by a few COVID “exposure events” in its branches, said Morgan Courtney, vice president of retail banking at the credit union.
“We’re already short-staffed, and so when we have an exposure event, if even only a few teammates go into health and safety protocol, it puts us in a place where we really have to consider whether or not we have enough staff at a particular branch to effectively serve our members,” he said.
Less than a handful of times in the last year, the credit union had to shut down a branch temporarily, Courtney said. Those closures were typically only for a day, with a replacement team running the operation until the regular team could return, he said.
“After nearly two years of the pandemic we’re now starting to run into some fatigue, which impacts morale, so we’re seeing COVID impact in yet additional ways,” Courtney said.
The branch staff at Salal Credit Union in Seattle was already down a few positions due to COVID-19 and the tight job market, which had led to branch closures or limited hours. Then this week, the credit union’s home city was
The $1.1 billion-asset credit union closed two branches for one day this week due to the inclement weather and staffing shortages.
“I’d expect the weather conditions to be resolved over the next several days. That said, we’re recruiting for branch staff with banking experience and without experience,” said Russell Rosendal, Salal's president and CEO.
The credit union is now recruiting many jobs as hybrid or remote positions. It has been successful in hiring team members who work from their homes in nearly a dozen different states, Rosendal said.
The virus has also put a recent strain on operations at M&F Bank in North Carolina, where two branches closed for one day before switching temporarily to drive-thru operations, according to Travis Rouse, chief sales and lending officer. One of those branches is now fully open, and the other is expected to fully reopen Friday.
The bank’s leadership is continuing to plan for ways to minimize disruptions should the pandemic get even worse. It has been helped by almost two years of experience with a hybrid work model, enhanced internal digital workflows and efforts to educate its customers about online banking, Rouse said.
“If it does get worse, we feel very confident that we'll be able to number one, staff the bank, but also take care of our customers,” he said.
