The move toward expanded digital services, pressures arising from the pandemic and a desire to cut costs has led to thousands of bank branches to close on both sides of the Atlantic, a pattern that seems irreversible to many observers. According to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a grassroots organization advocating for the underbanked, the number of U.S. bank branches dropped from 85,993 to 81,586, a 5.1% decline, between 2017 and 2020.