Banner Bank to close two county branches

Banner Bank has announced the closure of the Colfax and Uniontown branches of the bank. Both branches will close on Aug. 31, while branches in Pullman and Palouse will remain operational.

“We have over 200 branches in our footprint,” said Kelly McPhee, vice president of communications and public relations with Banner Bank. “They are both consolidating into the downtown Pullman branch on the same date.”

McPhee said the bank is continuously evaluating how the branches are operating and their effectiveness, leading to the decision to close the branches.

“We're working really hard at trying to decide where those shifts are occurring,” said McPhee, referring to shifts from in-person banking to online bank. “More and more people are doing their banking online.”

The online banking has led to services being provided in ways that they could not previously, such as with remote check deposit.

“They're getting their needs met in other ways,” said McPhee. “That's unfortunately a reality of banking today.”

McPhee said one of the factors in the decision was in evaluating where the Colfax and Uniontown customers have actually been conducting their in-person banking.

“They do travel around, and we see them choosing to do their banking at other branches,” said McPhee, referring to the Pullman, Moscow and Palouse branches.

Current Banner Bank customers in Colfax and Uniontown will see all of their information automatically transfer to the Pullman branch of the bank, though banking can continue to be conducted from any branch.

“There's nothing the clients need to do that are assigned to that branch,” said McPhee. “It will automatically transfer to Pullman.”

No decisions have been made as of right now on the current Banner Bank employees, though McPhee said that information will likely not be made public.

“We certainly are making it a priority to identify positions for them,” she said.

The Colfax branch was previously part of AmericanWest Bank in the 1990s. In October of 2015, AmericanWest and Banner Bank merged, and the Banner Bank name was retained.