After all-but abandoning Schuylkill, Santander set to make deeper cuts in Berks
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL FILE- Santander Bank at 2 North Main Street in Shenandoah. The bank closed in the spring of 2020.
READING, Berks County – The first bank to close a Shenandoah office since the early 1960s, which has closed all but one Schuylkill County branch in the past three years, is set to make even deeper cuts in the heart of its original hometown.
Santander Bank has told the state Department of Labor and Industry that it plans to lay off 77 workers in downtown Reading.
That notice came via the filing of a WARN Notice, required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
No further details on the layoffs have been provided.
The bank is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Santander Group, based in Spain. Originally Sovereign Bank before a buyout by Santander, the bank was based in Wyomissing, a Reading suburb, until a 2011 move to Boston.
Sovereign had a presence in Shenandoah since the 2002 buyout of the Miners National Bank of Pottsville, which itself had bought the Miners National Bank of Shenandoah in 1986.
Earlier this year, Santander shuttered the historic Miners Bank building in downtown Pottsville, worrying city officials about the landmark’s fate.
Along with the Shenandoah and Pottsville closures, Santander has closed every branch they had in Schuylkill County except Schuylkill Haven, forcing customers from northern communities to drive half an hour or more, or switch banks.
Santander was the first bank to close a Shenandoah branch since the closure of the Mutual Building and Loan Association in the early 1960s. Prior to that, the Shenandoah Trust Company closed in the early 1930s.
BB&T, now Truist, followed Santander a year later, closing its branch across the street.
Today, an average of 10,000 vehicles a day drive past the vacant Santander building at Main and Centre.
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