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Bank Branch Openings / Signage

Is that why Prompton moved next to Rabba? RBC has been really aggressive with new condos recently. Although the buildings on Front aren't that new (five years?).
 
Things sure have changed with the big banks and their downsizing days. I think they're just playing catch-up though. Though with the branch at Winston Churchill and Eglinton, it would have been better inside the mall (Erin Mills).
 
CIBC has been bad for taking their branches out of malls and building new mini-big-boxes. They did that in Brampton - they closed the busy branch at Shoppers World (with the crazy-busy ATMs), as well as one in another plaza at McLaughlin and Ray Lawson (which is in a retatively dense suburban location) and built a box with two ATM drive throughs and surrounded by parking. I thought that was terrible - a transit friendly busy location is yanked in favour of consolidation and car drivers.

TD especially seems to be taking the opposite approach, building new, smallish branches everywhere, though they closed a whole bunch after swalling Canada Trust. Where CIBC went from 2.5 branches to one in SW Brampton, TD went from 2 to 4 in the same time. RBC is pretty aggressive, but I get the impression that TD is the most aggressive, condos and suburbs.
 
CIBC was trying an experiment involving closing a bunch of small branches and opening large "super-branches", for a while. In the south end of Etobicoke they closed no fewer than five branches, plus one in Mississauga at Dixie Mall, and consolidated all of the business into one new location on The Queensway.

Word is that this hasn't worked as well as had been hoped, and we probably won't be seeing much more of it.
 
I'm glad to hear that the strategy hasn't worked that well. People want to be close to their bank branch where possible, and TD and Royal Bank have proved that to work better, me thinks.
 
They've also learned the lesson from the big US banks, that branches generate lots of lending business, so the more branches, the better.
 
RBC will be opening 35 new branches in the GTA next year, and TD also has a very aggressive growth strategy with a similar number of new branches opening in the region. TD Canada Trust currently dominates the retail branch sector in Toronto, and they intend to remain #1 in their home turf.
 
RBC will be opening 35 new branches in the GTA next year, and TD also has a very aggressive growth strategy with a similar number of new branches opening in the region. TD Canada Trust currently dominates the retail branch sector in Toronto, and they intend to remain #1 in their home turf.

Well the "T" in "TD Canada Trust" IS Toronto after all.
 
Personal observations about banks in the US and Canada...

Everyone: I read this topic with interest-It never fails to amaze me sometimes about banks - with everything from takeovers to name changes and lots in between. I remember things that I have noticed about banks that I will note here. As a start-being a Canadian forum-on my first trip to Canada in 1979 I was surprised to an extent that banks were allowed to operate on a nationwide basis-Royal Bank of Canada;Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce;Bank of Montreal;The Bank of Nova Scotia and the Toronto Dominion Bank were the top 5 I believe. Did I leave any out?
In the USA banks were regulated by the different states and were not allowed to cross state lines. One of the most restrictive laws I recall was in Illinois-banks at one time could have only ONE working branch office. Some were huge-like The First National Bank of Chicago in that city's Downtown-but you had lots of smaller "mom and pop" banks also-especially in rural areas. That law was repealed around 1980 or sooner-large banks like FNBC opened numerous branches and some smaller banks got bought out.
In New York banks were allowed to operate statewide and you would sometimes see banks from NYC in interesting locations-one example I recall was the East River Savings Bank had a few Buffalo and Erie County branches.
Sometimes it was a bank like Buffalo-based Marine Midland that had branches statewide-they used to promote "The United State of Marine Midland" using a sideways NYS map-nowadays they are HSBC bank. Banks like Citibank and Chase Manhattan somewhat dominate NYS banks today.
In Pennsylvania banks were once only allowed to operate in a group of pre-determined counties-that rule was in effect so large Philadelphia and Pittsburgh banks would not dominate PA banking-that rule was lifted in the 80s and the big banks soon expanded statewide.
In the USA - I believe it was in the 90s sometime the banking borders were lifted allowing major banks to go nationwide. You now see The Bank of America-a California bank here now in the East and in the NY area as an example Washington National-a Washington State-based bank has gone nationwide along with banks like Chase (N.Y.) and Wachovia-from North Carolina. There are many smaller bank operations everywhere-but with modern technology-the ATM-the days of 9am to 3pm-traditional bankers hours are very much over. Memories and observations from LI MIKE
 
You heard it here first folks - straight from Corporate: 3 new TD Canada Trust branches in the core: 1 Bloor East, on Parliament in Cabbagetown and Distillery District.
 
Hey Simply Dan...

What do you mean Cabbagetown? TD just opened at Queen & Parliament??? I can't imagine there is that many potential customers to warrant two branches 500m away?

Are you sure you work for TD...
 
There's now two TD's at Yonge & Eglinton and two TD's at Yonge & College/Carlton. I'm sure there could easily be one at Parliament & Queen and another at Parliament & Carlton (which are MUCH farther apart).
 
There is significantly higher density at those other two locations than in Cabbagetown. I just think the banks are overdoing it and setting themselves up to close branches later when this falls out of favour. I guess it will just leave somebody with job security. Open branches... Close Branches... Open Branches... Close Branches...
 

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