Discover the best location for your next branch investment

Technology and consumer behaviors have changed banking

Technology and consumer behaviors have revolutionized everything from shopping to dating. As people redefine convenience on their own terms, they expect to easily and quickly be able to visit their local credit union branch. As a matter of fact, when it comes to picking a financial institution, the biggest deciding factor for modern consumers is branch location.

Branches are back and convenience is king

With 60% of individuals preferring to bank close to home and 40% wanting to handle their banking near work, it’s no wonder that in 2023, U.S. banks added more net new branches for the first time in a decade. U.S. financial institutions have planned or opened more branches in the last few years than over the entire previous decade combined—with plans to continue that pace into 2028 and beyond.

An evidence-based approach to site selection & acquisition

The importance of investing in physical branches can’t be overstated. But there are a myriad of things to consider during the complex and time-consuming process—traffic patterns, member dispersion, accessibility, visibility, hidden costs, CC&Rs, site due-diligence, and so much more. So how do you find the right branch location to minimize risk and maximize return?

The biggest predictor of success

One of the biggest indicators of success relates to finding and acquiring the most promising strategic site for your next branch. Finding and securing the ideal site starts with ruthlessly knowing your members. To know your members and exactly what they want, you will need to mine the data—analyzing information about both current and future members, traffic patterns, competition, and future loan and deposit opportunities—and extract meaningful insights from that data. Those insights play a huge role in the site selection and acquisition process.

Find the right site

Using the insights gained from your market analysis, you should attempt to identify the strategic overlap of where your members and potential members live, work, and shop. You want to understand where your members shop for groceries, not where they shop for Christmas presents. That specific overlap becomes the focal point as the ideal location for your next branch.

If you’re working with a design + build partner, choose one that can help you through this process. We’ve seen plenty of branches built in less-than-ideal locations that were in a good zip code but at the wrong intersection.

Here’s one of the ways our team will often say it: “You can change almost anything about a branch. But you can’t change its location.”

Take the extra time near the beginning of your project and do the difficult work of finding a very specific ideal location—or work with a team who can do that for you.

Buy now for where you want to be later

The other way some credit unions miss opportunities is by not planning far enough into the future. Where do you want to build branches 5 years from now or 10 years from now?

Even if you’re not ready to build right away, go ahead and acquire the property now to give yourself options in the future. Otherwise, when you’re ready to build, there will be no space for your branch in the location you want.

Get clarity and be bold

Just remember, when it comes to site selection and acquisition, it’s absolutely crucial to explore your next real estate move through the lens of a comprehensive, research-based strategy.