Bank of America closes west Modesto branch; residents protest decision to leave area
The only bank on Modesto’s west side has closed its doors for good.
After almost 60 years serving the residents of west Modesto, Bank of America shut down its Paradise Road branch Tuesday. The closure leaves residents of the neighborhood west of Highway 99 without a brick-and-mortar bank branch to visit.
A group of about a dozen protesters held signs and chanted in front of the bank Tuesday morning, imploring the national financial institution to change its mind and stay in their community. The residents said they felt abandoned by the bank because the branch serves a largely low-income population.
“We have been loyal to Bank of America for 60 years now. And for them to come out and say we haven’t had enough depositors is kind of ridiculous,” said Ron DeLoach, who chairs the West Modesto People of Action Council and organized the Tuesday morning protest. “After 60 years, you’d think they would know our neighborhood. They would know we aren’t going to be able to have large depositors. But what we do have is loyal customers who come here religiously and deposit their money.”
The Paradise Road branch opened in 1960 with a community open house, and was heralded at the time for its friendly services and the wide range of features, according to The Modesto Bee archives. Bank of America spokeswoman Colleen Haggerty confirmed the closure and said it was driven by declining business at the branch.
“The decision to close a financial center is never an easy one, and this one is driven primarily by a decline in transactions as customers increasingly do their traditional banking outside of financial centers,” she said. “Other factors include consolidating centers with a notable overlap in the communities they serve, such as the financial centers located along Paradise Road and I Street.”
The company’s lease on the 408 Paradise Road property ends Aug. 30, Haggerty said, which factored into their final decision.
Haggerty said existing customers will be able to access their accounts and go into any of the existing Bank of America branches in the city. There are four remaining branches: in east Modesto on Oakdale Road, in north Modesto on Dale Road, in north-central Modesto on McHenry Avenue and in downtown Modesto on I Street.
The I Street location is the closest to the shuttering west Modesto branch, about 2.5 miles away. But west Modesto residents said many in the community lack the transportation to go to the other bank. Others questioned the reasoning, saying the bank frequently had lines out the door of people waiting to cash their checks or access their Social Security funds.
“We are concerned as community leaders that this is the only legitimate banking institution within west and south Modesto, so we are putting these communities in a situation where they are susceptible to predatory lenders,” said Marvin Jacobo, executive director of City Ministry Network in Modesto.
Jacobo said that without a bank branch, more residents will turn to check-cashing businesses, which can take a hefty cut to complete the transaction.
West side resident Deborah Johns said losing the bank means losing an essential part of the community. She has been a member of the bank for the last five years and said the location is convenient to her home because she is disabled and has mobility problems.
“Every community needs a bank, a church, stores like these across the street,” Johns said. “We need this. We need the money here for the community.”
Haggerty said the bank is looking into putting an ATM kiosk somewhere in west Modesto instead. She said the company sent out mailers to customers in mid-March, giving its clients more than 90-day notice for the closure. And they also met with “local and statewide advocacy organizations” about the closure.
But Perfecto Munoz, executive director of the West Modesto Community Collaborative, said people in the neighborhood still felt blind-sided by the decision.
“There’s been a lot of lack of information from the bank when they first started to say they were closing,” Munoz said. “We are here to support the residents of west Modesto and the value and importance of what this bank brings to the community, but now they are taking it away.”
Munoz and Jacobo have arranged for a representative from the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which oversees all national banks and federal savings associations, to come to a community meeting about the closure at 9 a.m. Sept. 10 at the King-Kennedy Memorial Center.
This story was originally published July 30, 2019 at 5:17 PM.
