Wait, banks OPEN branches in Manhattan?! Isn't internet banking a thing in NYC? Like, what would you even DO in a bank these days. They don't even carry money anymore.
It’s also a prestige thing. Our NYC office is a blackhole of money our other locations subsidize. Then again the partners hold game changing meetings in those offices so maybe that wouldn’t be true if i had access to the whole picture.
I have yet to go to a branch that does not "carry money". In fact, I occasionally use human tellers when I want specific denominations of bills for some reason.
> Like, what would you even DO in a bank these days.
* Loan origination paperwork
* Cashier's checks
* Notarization (I get it free for being a customer)
* Needing more than $400 cash
* Depositing coins
These are not things I need to do often, but each has come up at least once in the past couple years. I have also noticed that in Manhattan it is common for banks to have ATM lobbies in place of full branches. I hit one of those at least once ever couple weeks.
And that's just consumer banking. There's also commercial banking. Most businesses still take in lots of cash, and need to send an employee to their bank to deposit it on a daily basis, since having lots of cash in the store encourages robberies. (If you're a large store, you'll use an armored truck service to move cash, but a pizza shop probably doesn't.) This requires teller services, since depositing thousands of dollars in cash via an ATM would be cumbersome.
Thus, neighborhoods with lots of retail businesses also need enough bank branches to support these businesses.
Yeah this has been the answer for me. Although my online only credit union has partnerships with local credit unions that have physical branches I can visit, it is much more convenient for me to visit a grocery store. I get charged a nominal fee - ~20 cents per roll - but in the end the convenience wins out.
