Representatives from Ridgewood Savings Bank issued a statement on Thursday, July 15, confirming the opening, next month,  of the group’s new branch at 320 East 204th Street in Norwood, which will replace the Norwood location at 3445 Jerome Avenue which is closing. As recently reported by Norwood News, the new branch was scheduled to open by September.

 

Bank officials said they were also working with partners including regulators, community groups, city officials, and other associates, as they explore alternate options for their Sedgwick Avenue branch, which had been set to close. Such discussions include the feasibility of continuing to operate the Sedgwick Avenue location as a complement to the new Norwood branch. Officials said they anticipate the process will continue to evolve in the coming weeks and they look forward to continuing to serve the Bronx community.

 

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (A.D. 81) had commented on the closures last month, on June 10, saying it had come to his attention that two more bank locations would be closing in the Northwest Bronx community, and referred to the Sedgwick Avenue and Van Cortlandt Avenue West location as well as the Jerome Avenue and West Mosholu Parkway North location.

 

“At least two other bank branches are in similar situations in our community over recent months, Chase Bank at the Knolls Crescent shopping center, as well as Capitol One Bank on Riverdale Avenue and West 259th Street,” he said. “It is readily apparent that there is an industry-wide trend to close retail bank locations, impact on consumers be damned.”

 

The assemblyman said he wrote a letter to the CEO of Ridgewood Savings Bank requesting that he keep the bank on Sedgwick Avenue open. “The next closest branch will be located on West 204th Street, which is a lengthy distance from their customers who live in Van Cortlandt Village and Kingsbridge Heights – with a 94-acre reservoir and a busy parkway in between people and their bank,” he said. “Even if these residents wanted to switch banks, the numerous bank options on Broadway are on the other side of a 150-foot elevation change that makes it nearly impossible for people with limited mobility to maintain the banking access that they have enjoyed on Sedgwick Avenue.”

 

Dinowitz said that he was not optimistic that the battle against corporate banks would be won, and referred to such banks as “deciding to line their pockets with more profit by disregarding the banking needs of our community.” He said this was why the acceleration of the establishment of banking services at post offices was needed (which requires federal action). “It’s also why we need to more actively discuss how to create a public banking system that can supplant our current reliance on private corporations for essential banking services (this likely requires coordination between the City and State),” Dinowitz said.

 

The assemblyman added that he was deeply troubled by any and all bank closures, but especially those that are the only realistic banking option within walking distance of major residential communities. “People should not need to take two buses just to get their money, nor should they be obligated to use digital banking services if they are not comfortable doing so,” he said.

 

He added that while residents (in neighborhoods like Riverdale) were fortunate to have several concentrations of banks to serve the community (northern Riverdale Avenue, Johnson Avenue, Broadway, Jerome Avenue, Bainbridge Avenue, and White Plains Road), there were too many communities that lacked sufficient banking services already, such as Woodlawn, Van Cortlandt Village, Kingsbridge Heights, Knolls Crescent, Spuyten Duyvil, and more. “This is not acceptable,” he said.

 

As previously reported by Norwood News, we reached out to the City’s Independent Budget Office (IBO) in January 2021 to get a sense of the overall impact of the pandemic on Wall Street revenues in 2020, and to understand if the impact had had a significant effect on the availability of local bank branches across the City. Despite reports that some firms (including some financial firms) had left the city amid the crisis, it transpired that Wall Street actually had something of a bumper year.

 

According to an IBO report published in January 2021, New York Stock Exchange member firms profits soared to $27.6 billion over the first half of 2020, and the IBO projected that profits would top $47 billion for the year as a whole—a total exceeded only in 2009 according to the IBO, when Wall Street was rebounding from steep losses at the onset of the Great Recession. The IBO also forecast at that time that Wall Street profits would subside to $25 billion in 2021 and then hold in the $23 billion to $25 billion range over the rest of the financial plan period.

 

Norwood News reached out to Ridgewood Savings Bank for a comment on the assemblyman’s statement on the matter and Adam Brill, spokesperson for Ridgewood reiterated that the bank’s president had responded to Dinowitz’s concerns and had been in touch with his office many times. In fact, he said the bank is working diligently with a number of community partners and nonprofits all of whom are “exploring every option to get a good resolution for the community.”

 

Meanwhile, officials at the bank said they remained steadfast in their commitment to serve the needs of all New Yorkers, as they have done for more than 100 years.