美联储-银行在哪里？分行合并时代的银行准入（英）

Finance and Economics Discussion SeriesFederal Reserve Board, Washington, D.C.ISSN 1936-2854 (Print)ISSN 2767-3898 (Online)Where’s The Bank? Banking Access in the Era of BranchConsolidationRobert M. Adams and Shane M. Sherlund2025-086Please cite this paper as:Adams, Robert M., and Shane M. Sherlund (2025).“Where’s The Bank?Bank-ing Access in the Era of Branch Consolidation,” Finance and Economics DiscussionSeries 2025-086.Washington:Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System,https://doi.org/10.17016/FEDS.2025.086.NOTE: Staff working papers in the Finance and Economics Discussion Series (FEDS) are preliminarymaterials circulated to stimulate discussion and critical comment. The analysis and conclusions set forthare those of the authors and do not indicate concurrence by other members of the research staff or theBoard of Governors. References in publications to the Finance and Economics Discussion Series (other thanacknowledgement) should be cleared with the author(s) to protect the tentative character of these papers.WHERE’S THE BRANCH?BANKING ACCESS IN AN ERA OF BRANCH CONSOLIDATIONROBERT M. ADAMS AND SHANE M. SHERLUNDAbstract. This study examines changes in household and employment access to bankbranches in the United States from 2014 to 2024, calculating distances with highly granularcensus block-level data.We develop a continuous measure of bank branch access thataccounts for population and employment density, implicitly accounting for varying traveltimes within different urban and rural areas.Our findings indicate that despite a 19-percent decline in bank branches over the decade, average distances to the nearest branchincreased only modestly—by 0.02 to 0.28 miles depending on area density. We find somedisparities in branch access across racial and income groups, but these gaps did not widensubstantially over the 2014-2024 period.Overall, our results suggest that while somelocalized reductions in branch access occurred, the significant reduction in the numberof branches did not result in significant decreases in access to local bank branches forhouseholds or businesses.JEL: G21, R32Keywords: Banking, Branch Networks, Geospatial Analysis, Banking DesertsDate: This version: September 8, 2025.Contact Information: Robert M. Adams (Corresponding Author), Federal Reserve Board of Governors,Washington, DC 20551 (e-mail: robert.m.adams@frb.gov); Shane M. Sherlund, Federal Reserve Board ofGovernors, Washington, DC 20551 (e-mail: shane.m.sherlund@frb.gov).The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Boardof Governors of the Federal Reserve System, its members, or staff.12ROBERT M. ADAMS AND SHANE M. SHERLUND1. IntroductionAccess to financial services, especially banking services, has been a topic of interest inresearch and a concern for policymakers. Historically, bank branches, specifically brick andmortar locations, have been the centerpiece to such analyses, as many banking services werelocally pr