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Chevy Chase’s Forbright Bank has opened two new cashless locations and is preparing to open a third as it leans into its slimmed-down service "hub" model.
On June 15, it soft-opened a 4,300 square-foot service hub at 11560 Old Georgetown Road in the Pike & Rose development in North Bethesda and a 3,300 square-foot hub at 1600 Tysons Boulevard — a 13-story, 305,000-square-foot office building adjacent to Tysons Galleria. The latter was initially expected to open by the end of last year, the bank previously told the Washington Business Journal.
The moves come as banks in Greater Washington continue to balance trimming their physical footprints with meeting the needs of customers. Banks closed 101 branches in the market between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022, according to the most recent available data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Forbright, formerly Congressional Bank, is no exception. Last year, it closed its K Street branch, which is set to be replaced with a service hub at 4445 Willard Ave. in Chevy Chase, Maryland. A date hasn’t yet been determined for the Chevy Chase hub opening, a spokesperson told the Washington Business Journal. Its Herndon branch is also set to close, replaced by the Tysons hub that opened earlier this month.
However, Forbright is taking the view that its new service model in Tysons, a buzzy location seeing continued development in North Bethesda and eventually, Chevy Chase, will allow it to meet its customers in more places and still offer desired services. The locations are cashless and not staffed by tellers, but at least two bankers will work out of each office, where clients will be able to update account information, order and activate debit cards, order checks and meet with a relationship banker.
“These service hubs will expand our physical footprint and better serve our customers,” Craig Underhill, president of Forbright’s community banking division said in a statement.
Since it announced its rebranding and new, intensified focus on sustainability in September of 2021 under founder and Executive Chairman John Delaney — also a former Maryland congressman and presidential candidate — Forbright has undergone rapid growth. That fall, Forbright vowed to “dedicate half of its assets to financing the companies, investors, operators and innovators” that are deemphasizing carbon and working to create a more sustainable economy.
It went on to roughly triple its deposits in the following year, and has kept growing since. As of the end of March had $5.6 billion in total deposits, according to data from the FDIC, compared to $4.6 billion at March 31, 2022 and $1.5 billion in March 2021, when it was still called Congressional Bank.
Last year, it was the biggest mover in Greater Washington’s deposit-share rankings, jumping from No. 20 to 12, and at last count held 1.9% of the region's deposits. At the end of March it had $6.4 billion in total assets, up from $5.5 billion a year earlier and $2 billion two years ago.
