News came out of Philadelphia today that a local bank will be closing branches. Beneficial Bancorp, as a part of its effort to acquire SE Financial Bancorp, will be closing three of current branches. They currently have 65 open branches.

The company isn't really talking to the public about this move. However, news did come out today when a letter was sent to all customers of St. Edmond's (who are owned by SE Financial Bancorp). The letter noted that Beneficial will close branches in the South Philadelphia area since it's buying up five St. Edmond's branches. Good news for the workers: no one is being laid off.

Officially, the merger between the two companies already happened on April 3. Systems conversions will be completed on May 22 and then the St. Edmond's locations will be rebranded under the Beneficial name.

The three branches that are being closed are only being shut down because they're too close to current Beneficial locations. That's the only reason. This is not an effort to downsize or reduce the company in any way. A bit of educated guessing shows that Beneficial will likely be closing down the St. Edmond's that is currently located at Drexel Hill.

The company currently holds $5 billion in assets. It is unclear at the moment if St. Edmond's executives will be making the move over to Beneficial as well.

(Source)