Citizens Bank plans to shutter its Keene branch on June 18, leaving the bank’s next closest branches in Brattleboro, Henniker and Milford.

Branch Manager Nick Whalen confirmed Monday a letter has gone out to customers about the impending closure.

Kathryn Balcerski, communications manager for Citizens Bank, released a statement in response to a Keene Sentinel question on why the company decided to close the downtown Keene location.

“We’ve been on a journey at Citizens to evolve how our customers bank with us, and we continually review customer patterns to evolve and adjust branch strategy across our network.

“We look forward to continuing to serve customers through our other branches as well as through our online and mobile banking platforms. Branches remain a key part of our overall strategy to help customers bank when, where and how they prefer, and we remain committed to the communities we serve.”

Balcerski said efforts would be made to retain the bank’s employees.

“We try to give them every opportunity to go to another branch,” she said. “Anyone who wants to be employed in most cases will still be employed.”

The Keene branch is at 15 Main St. The building is up for sale with an asking price of $1.1 million, according to the listing agent, Dave Garvey of Keller Williams Coastal Realty.

According to city property records, the owner of the 125-year-old property is a San Diego-based limited liability corporation, ARC CBKNENH001, which bought the 12,588-square-foot building for nearly $3 million in 2012.

Citizens Bank has about 1,000 branches across a number of states, the company says on its website.

Last October, it announced it was closing 15 branches, including one New Hampshire location in Nashua.

Large banks have been shutting down branch locations across the country as more people do their banking online.

The Wall Street Journal reported last August that 2,454 bank branches closed in 2023 and as of December of that year, the number of bank branches in the U.S. had shrunk by more than one-fifth compared to 2009.

— RICK GREEN/KEENE SENTINEL