FirstMerit Bank will close its Merriman Road branch in the Merriman Valley area of Akron this summer, along with 25 other branches bankwide.
Bank officials had said during the fourth-quarter earnings conference call with analysts at the end of January that FirstMerit would be closing 26 branches during the first half of the year. It would achieve cost savings from the acquisition of the former Citizens Bank, company Chairman, President and CEO Paul Greig had said, adding that the branches would be consolidated with others.
Closures would be a mixture of former Citizens locations and FirstMerit sites, bank officials said.
“As always, our focus is placing as many employees as possible in nearby locations,” FirstMerit spokesman Rob Townsend said.
He was not available to answer a follow-up question about whether there would be layoffs if some employees were not placed in other locations.
The branch at 1675 Merriman Road is the only Akron-area FirstMerit location being closed at the end of the business day June 6. The Wooster branch, at 1812 Cleveland Road, and a Fairport Harbor branch are also closing in Northeast Ohio. The other 23 closures are elsewhere in the Akron-based bank’s five-state region.
Townsend said the branch closures are a result of the bank actively managing its branch network “by looking at traffic patterns, customer channel trends, such as online and mobile banking, cost of operation and other consolidations, opening and closing locations as needed.”
In a letter to customers, FirstMerit suggested patrons go to the nearest full-service branch to the closing Merriman Valley branch — at 2878 State Road in Cuyahoga Falls, less than 2.5 miles away, the bank said.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/blinfisherABJ and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty.