Banking

It will be the bank’s ninth Richmond-area branch to be put on the chopping block in the last couple years, including two others that are set to close in the coming weeks.

After being stymied in an expansion attempt by the State Corporation Commission last year, Richmond’s biggest credit union is looking to sidestep the state regulator by taking its charter to the federal level.

The $5 billion institution and one of the largest credit unions in the state is entering the Richmond market for the first time with an outpost in Short Pump.

As it looks to shutter its branch on a prime parcel across from Scott’s Addition, the banking giant also has put two additional local outposts on the chopping block.

“We’re not stopping because the community has been reaching out to us … they want branches,” Chase regional head Tom Ing said. “Our real estate team is working tirelessly.”

“We’re very confident that this was a one-off issue. There’s a rogue employee, he’d been conducting this for quite a while…” the bank said of the fraud.

The bank also said it is looking for one to two new locations around the city over the next two years, in addition to a new branch it plans to build from scratch across from Willow Lawn.

“We felt as though we were losing relevance not to just our shareholder but our customers in the way this industry is changing rapidly,” American National Bank CEO Jeff Haley said of the deal.

Richmond’s biggest bank is back in acquisition mode with a deal to expand its footprint in Southwest and Southside Virginia.

While it would be the sixth local Wells Fargo branch to close in the last two years, it’s arguably the most noteworthy location of the bunch.