Banks largely relying on drive-thru, appointments during coronavirus
As the coronavirus pandemic shuts down all nonessential businesses across Pennsylvania, banks are remaining open but, for the most part, limiting their services to appointment-only or the drive-thru window.
Community Bank, based in Washington, has closed its lobbies, according to Andrew Corfont, Community Bank’s marketing director, but are available by appointment. The Brookline and Monessen branches do not have drive-thru windows, and will remain open only by appointment. All branches will be closed on Saturday until further notice.
“Just like everyone else, we’re adapting minute by minute,” Corfont said.
Washington Financial Bank, which has eight branches throughout Washington County, is also going to drive-thru only service, though, like Community Bank, transactions that need to be made in the lobby can be handled by appointment.
“Our commercial depositors are in at regular times,” according to Mike Chaido, Washington Financial’s chief operating officer.
Chaido also noted that “bank tellers are the best hand washers in the world,” and that money is “still as dirty as it ever was.”
“Picking up coronavirus is the least of our worries about what’s on money,” Chaido said. He said tellers and other bank personnel put hand sanitizer on “pretty hard.”
As of Thursday, Huntington Bank locations were closing branches that did not have drive-thru windows or were located within retail centers. The bank, based in Columbus, Ohio, is urging customers to call 800-480-2265 if they need to speak to a customer service representative.
Key Bank, based in Cleveland, has adopted similar measures, closing its lobbies on Thursday. Customers are being asked to go to key.com to determine what branches have drive-thru availability.
The roughly one-quarter of PNC Bank branches that do not have drive-thru availability will close until further notice. Access to safe deposit boxes, loan closings and other services will be available by appointment.
Bill Demchak, PNC chairman, president and chief executive officer, said in a statement: “The challenges all of us face at this time are unprecedented, and PNC is making these adjustments to help keep our customers and employees safe. Great consideration went into these decisions, and we are confident in our ability to seamlessly deliver through these changes with minimal disruption at the level of service our customers expect and deserve. We also have the capital and liquidity to continue to meet the needs of our entire customer base.”
As of Thursday night, Citizens Bank was keeping all its locations open, including outlets in retail stores, according to spokesman Peter Lucht. He said in an email message, however, “We are continuously evaluating customer needs and adjusting operating hours of some locations as required. As we continue to monitor the situation it is possible that we could make further changes…”