Every bank branch Alaska has lost since 2019 is a Wells Fargo branch

Wells Fargo has filed to close its Benson Boulevard branch in midtown Anchorage, its fourth Alaska branch-closing notice in eleven months. Federal law sets the earliest permissible closing date at Sept. 20, 2026. That is eleven days from now.

Alaska has nine fewer bank branches than it had in 2019, and Wells Fargo has closed nine. The FDIC's Summary of Deposits, the annual survey that counts branches and the money in them, recorded 44 Wells Fargo branches in Alaska in 2019, 40 in 2021, 38 in 2023 and 37 in 2024 and 2025. The bank has 35 today. Over the same years Northrim Bank went from 16 branches to 21. KeyBank closed four and First National Bank Alaska one.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency logged the advance notice for Benson on June 22, 2026. The Benson Branch, established June 22, 1978, remains listed as open in current Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation location data, and the OCC record shows only receipt of the notice, with no proposed closing date and no closure recorded.

Under 12 U.S.C. 1831r-1, a bank proposing to close a branch must file notice at least 90 days before the proposed closing date, post notice at the branch for at least 30 days, and tell customers by account statement or separate mailing at the start of the 90-day window. A Benson customer who received no such letter has grounds to ask why.

Wells Fargo still runs the largest branch network in Alaska, and in six communities it is the only bank in town: Utqiaġvik, Dillingham, King Salmon, Kotzebue, North Pole and Skagway. Five other communities have a single branch from another bank: KeyBank in Dutch Harbor, First National Bank Alaska in Haines, Healy and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, and Denali State Bank in Tok.

As of June 30, 2024, the FDIC survey recorded 37 Wells Fargo branches in Alaska holding 42.8 percent of all deposits in the state, the largest share of any bank.

Three of the four Alaska notices involve midtown Anchorage addresses. The Kenai branch, at 11216 Kenai Spur Highway, closed Oct. 22, 2025; the Midtown Mall branch, at 600 East Northern Lights Boulevard, closed May 6, 2026; and a third notice covers the Northern Lights and C Street branch at 301 West Northern Lights Boulevard, which was separately approved to relocate to 2900 Denali Street as the Denali Branch, a move completed June 29. OCC records also show an earlier final closure recorded for the same Northern Lights and C Street address effective Aug. 17, 2022.

In 2021 Wells Fargo filed closing notices for its Sitka, Dillingham and Utqiaġvik branches, all marked Deleted on Aug. 17, 2022, a designation the OCC defines as a filing submitted by mistake. All three branches remain open today. That is the same date as the C Street closure record, so four filings changed state in the database on one day, which may reflect a records action rather than four decisions.

Kenai felt the closure most directly. The city now has two bank branches: First National Bank Alaska at 11408 Kenai Spur Highway and KeyBank at 801 Frontage Road. Wells Fargo still operates on the peninsula in Soldotna, Homer and Seward.

FDIC records list 112 bank branches in Alaska across seven banks. Wells Fargo holds 35, ahead of First National Bank Alaska with 27 and Northrim Bank with 21. Anchorage accounts for 24 of them, with Northrim holding eight, Wells Fargo seven, First National seven and KeyBank two. The Benson closure would take Wells Fargo to six in Anchorage.

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition, which tracks bank branch access, says closures in areas with few branches can create branch deserts, pushing consumers and small businesses toward alternative providers and particularly hitting people without reliable transportation.

Wells Fargo has not publicly stated a reason for the closure. The detailed statement of reasons required by federal law goes to the OCC and is not part of the public application record.

Alaska has no separate state role in the decision. The state charters and examines Denali State Bank, First Bank, Mt. McKinley Bank and Northrim Bank, while Wells Fargo, KeyBank and First National Bank Alaska answer to the OCC.