Fifth Third Bancorp Unveils Additional Consolidation Plans

Fifth Third Bancorp said it plans to consolidate or sell an additional 44 branches and five parcels of undeveloped land early next year.

The streamlining plan, which was unveiled at an industry conference Tuesday, comes more than a year after Fifth Third embarked on its previous reorganization program that included plans to consolidate or sell about 100 of its branches and about 30 other properties.

The Cincinnati-based lender and other regional banks have remained under pressure from low interest rates and tougher capital requirements, resulting in many of them cutting costs.

Since the financial crisis, U.S. banks have been ramping up mobile and online services and moving away from physical locations to avoid overlap, which has contributed to a steady decline in branch numbers.

On Tuesday, Fifth Third said it also plans to control discretionary spending and study the use of nonbranch locations as a way to reduce unused office capacity.

Fifth Third expects the latest streamlining to result in asset write-downs of $25 million to $30 million for the third quarter, and branch-closing related charges of $4 million to $6 million for the first quarter.

As of June 30, Fifth Third operated 1,191 full service branches, including 94 Bank Mart locations in certain grocery stores.

Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 13, 2016 10:05 ET (14:05 GMT)

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