Predator Targets Hit as Banks Shut Branches Amid Profits

Banks that opened more than 15,000 branches across the U.S. in the decade leading to the financial crisis are retreating from lower-income neighborhoods, even as the industry posted its second-most-profitable year on record.

Banks have shut 1,826 branches since late 2008, and 93 percent of closings were in postal codes where the household income is below the national median, according to census and federal banking data compiled by Bloomberg. The number of branches, boosted by acquisitions at Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., peaked at 99,540 in 2009, up 20 percent from 1998. A study released two days ago estimates the branch total could fall by as much as 40 percent in the next decade.