Aug 6, 2020 2 min read

First Commonwealth Bank will close its Trinity Point Shopping Center branch by year’s end.

The South Strabane Township location is among 29 the Indiana, Pa.-based company will shutter by Dec. 31 – 20% of the bank’s 148 branches. Twenty-one of the closures will occur in Pennsylvania, including 11 in the 10-county Pittsburgh metro region. The other eight are in Ohio.

Management at the branch at 10 Trinity Place referred comment to its communications department.

The consolidation was fueled by banking trends, which have been compounded recently by impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bank spokesman Jonathan Longwill said in a statement: “For years, our customers have demonstrated a transformation in how they do their banking. We’ve watched transactions move progressively away from the branch and toward online and mobile. While much of that was accelerated by the circumstances surrounding COVID-19, these are trends we’ve been watching evolve for years.”

He said teller transactions have decreased 15 to 20% annually over the past several years, and that “almost three quarters of our customer base is using digital banking.” Longwill added that call center and online chat volumes “have experienced similar increases.”

Longwill said, however, that “we confidently anticipate a very little job loss. In preparation for some change, we have not been filling open positions since March.”

First Commonwealth has two other Washington County locations – in McDonald and Peters Township. Those will remain open.