Fifth Third Bancorp now plans to invest a total $1.9 billion to build new branches through 2029, a substantial increase in projected investments since the Cincinnati-based regional lender began expanding into the Southeast seven years ago.
In addition to Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina, Fifth Third is targeting Texas as well for new branches, a move prompted by its planned acquisition of Dallas-based Comerica Inc., said Shawn Niehaus, Fifth Third's head of consumer banking. The planned investment is much higher than the $225 million for 100 new branches in the Southeast contemplated in 2018. The lender just opened its 200th branch in Florida and 100th in the Carolinas.
"It's a significant milestone," Niehaus said in an interview, "and we're not done yet."
When the $10.9 billion takeover of Comerica was announced in early October, Fifth Third said it would open 150 new branches in Texas throughout 2029, in addition to Comerica's locations. Fifth Third has secured the locations for more than a quarter of those sites in the past two months, Niehaus said. Texas is one of the top-growing U.S. states, and a place where Fifth Third aims to have at least 8% of the bank-branch market.
"The acquisition with Comerica -- we saw that there's opportunity for us to help get to those 8% targets faster than what maybe Comerica had planned," Niehaus said.
In the largest U.S. bank deal announced so far this year, Fifth Third has said it would help accelerate its goal to have more than half of its retail footprint concentrated in the Southeast, Texas and Arizona by 2030.
From 2026 and 2029, Fifth Third plans to hire an additional 1,500 staffers to support its branch operations. It had more than 18,000 full-time employees as of the end of the third quarter.
Part of the building plans is meant to optimize locations as competition evolves in the digital-banking era, instead of merely increasing branch numbers. Between 2018 and 2025, Fifth Third's total branches declined slightly, to 1,097 from 1,173, according to data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
"Branch consolidation remains a disciplined process for us," Niehaus said. "We're closing under-performing locations in legacy markets and reallocating resources to growth corridors."
Fifth Third is among a handful of banks that have been investing the most aggressively in opening new branches -- a group that also includes PNC Financial Services Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. -- as lenders chase retail deposits as a low-cost funding source inaccessible by nonbanks. Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington Bancshares Inc. is also doubling down on its expansion in the South, announcing two deals within three months this year.