Huntington Bancshares Inc. will be closing 198 branch offices, including 97 in-store branches located in Meijer Inc. stores in Michigan, after completing the proposed $22 billion acquisition of Detroit-based TCF Financial Corp. according to a reportin MiBiz

In a conference call with brokerage analysts to discuss fourth quarter results, Huntington Bancorp Chairman, President and CEO Stephen Stenour attributed the planned Meijer in-store closings to the fact that preferences for doing in-store banking activities are changing.

Huntington and Meijer signed a deal for the bank to open in-store branches in Michigan in 2012. An S&P Global Market Intelligence February 2020 report detailed how in-store bank branches across the U.S. have steadily declined from 5,924 in 2010 to 4,082 locations as of last year. Despite the decline, deposits increased from $66.9 billion to $84.3 billion.

The merging of these two companies was announced in December 2020 and once the deal closes in the second quarter, pending TCF shareholder and regulatory approval, the bank, which will do business under the Huntington name, will bring $168 billion in assets, $117 billion in loans and $134 billion in deposits to the table. These number could push the bank into one of the top 10 regional bank spots in the U.S.

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