The Great Branch Race: Why Most Banks Are Running the Wrong Way

When Gina Bleedorn, President and CEO of Adrenaline, addressed the BankSpaces audience in Clearwater Beach, she had sobering news: the industry's massive reinvestment in physical locations—what she calls "the great branch race"—is in need of serious realignment.

Despite headlines proclaiming the death of branches just a few years ago, financial institutions are now sprinting to open new locations. 

But most are running the race the wrong way, she said, and banks can’t get back on track fast enough.

From Death to Resurrection

Just a handful of years ago, mainstream media declared branches dead. COVID-driven closures in 2021 seemed to confirm the fintech revolution's victory. But by 2023, net new branch openings exceeded closures for the first time in a decade.

The turnaround has been dramatic: Chase announced 500 new branches and 1,700 renovations. Bank of America, PNC, Huntington, Fifth Third, and others followed with billion-dollar commitments to revitalize their branch networks.

Research validates the revival: 70% of consumers want a branch within 15 minutes of where they live, 86% visited a branch in the past year, and half of all account originations still happen in person. Branch-originated accounts significantly outperform digital ones in both initial deposits and long-term relationship value.

The Profitability Problem

But here's the concerning reality: historically, over half of de novo branches fail to reach profitability. Adrenaline cited a Curinos analysis showing a 56% failure rate, with results being "incredibly hit and miss" even within the same organization, Bleedorn said.

"What I am concerned about is the way things are going today, and with the way the race is being run, we're going to see this percentage go up," she warned.

But the root cause isn't location selection – it's internal dysfunction. Bleedorn identified "a great disconnection happening" inside banks that short-circuits transformation: departments operating in silos without shared ownership or consistent definitions of success.

This creates three critical gaps:

1. Analytics to Strategy: Getting insights but not activating them meaningfully
2. Strategy to Design: Strategic intent gets diluted through templated approaches
3. Design to Execution: Design erodes during implementation

Gap 1 Solution: Better Decisions

Bleedorn illustrated successful gap-closing with Incredible Bank, a Wisconsin institution expanding to Florida. CEO Todd Nagel demanded something different: "If you design me a bank-looking bank, I will fire you," she recalled.

They leveraged strategic interpretation of data to determine not just where this location should go, but what type of delivery their target audience wanted. The result was a 360-degree drive-thru experience that celebrated car service rather than hiding it, including ITM lanes and curbside service where bankers come directly to customers' cars.

And when converting 450 Flagstar locations, a data- and strategy-informed decision tree was essential to defining cost tiers with built-in flexibility — maximizing both design intent and cost efficiency at each site.

Gap 2 Solution: Fit for Purpose

The fundamental challenge moving from strategy to design is that a branch's purpose has completely reversed. Traditionally, branches prioritized transactions first, followed by human service, then advice, and ultimately served as the brand's front door. Today's priority order is a complete reversal.

"It has flipped 180 degrees," Bleedorn said. "If you haven't organizationally flipped to accommodate this, that's a problem."

She demonstrated this with Origin Bank's contrasting approaches in Monroe, Louisiana, versus Dallas. In Monroe, where the bank had total market penetration, they created a relationship-building space focused on community storytelling. In Dallas, where no one knew of Origin, they built an acquisition-focused billboard with expensive metalwork to attract commercial lending prospects.

Gap 3 Solution: Making Impact

The execution gap often involves value engineering decisions that undermine design intent. Bleedorn's most dramatic example involved Civic Federal Credit Union, which had to build an entire branch network from scratch following a divestiture — 11 branches in 12 months for 400,000 members across North Carolina.

They succeeded by creating flexible, reconfigurable spaces while maintaining consistent branding and community connection elements. The key was ensuring design intent survived the rapid deployment pace, she said.

Modern branch success requires matching delivery models to strategic purpose, not just to demographics. Bleedorn outlined archetypal models that scale acquisition, cross-sell, loyalty, and efficiency objectives based on market needs.

"It is about the right delivery model, and the people part that needs to be inherent in the experience you plan," she said.

Winning in the Middle

Bleedorn's central message: "The great branch race is not won at the starting line or the finish line. It's actually won in the middle, at the handoffs."

Success requires connecting analytics to strategic choices, ensuring design matches modern branch functions, and maintaining design intent all the way through execution.

The institutions winning the great branch race aren't those with the biggest budgets; they're the ones that have eliminated internal silos and aligned around shared definitions of success. In an industry where everyone is sprinting to market, the differentiator isn't speed — it's coordination.

Watch Gina's full talk below 👇