I understand that the closing of a branch was a major inconvenience for many customers, but we are talking about a bank that has had a lot of downsizing and was probably closing not profitable branches. As per switching banks, I side with the option that takes less of my property taxes to do so. If the city changes banks, it will be a large administrative expense plus additional fees with a different provider.
Jersey City leaving will not make even small dent to Bank of America, but it will use our tax dollars towards another ineffective cause. Instead, lets focus on bringing another bank into that location.

Members of the Jersey City City Council tonight expressed outrage that Bank of America remains a city customer 18 months after the council voted to drop the city?s accounts with the banking giant.

The council voted in July 2010 to drop Bank of America after the bank closed its branch at the HUB shopping plaza on Martin Luther King Drive. The action was never taken, though, and at tonight?s council caucus city CFO Donna Mauer recommended continuing with Bank of America through 2012.
Mauer?s recommendation was met with outrage from Councilwoman-at-Large Viola Richardson, who led the 2010 charge to drop Bank of America as a city customer.
?This council voted to change banks almost two years ago,? Richardson said. ?They left a whole lot of folks at the HUB defenseless. They left a lot of seniors with no place to go.?
Ward B Councilman David Donnelly said the CFO?s recommendation illustrated a ?total disregard? for the council?s wishes.
The city now has about 90 bank accounts, with a little less than half of those at Bank of America. City officials argued that the city should retain the bank as a customer because it has the most branches citywide.
Mauer said she requested proposals from other banks, but none of them offered similar services at a significantly lower price. Changing banks, she said, ?will cost the city money.?
?For the work that it would take to switch to a different bank for really no significant savings, it really wasn?t worth it.,? Mauer said tonight.
But Richardson was resolute: the city should not do business with Bank of America.
?I think the city has to have some integrity,? she said. ?If they don?t have any, we need to have some.?
Bank of America spokesman TJ Crawford declined to comment on the bank possible losing the city's business, but said, "aside from our strong brick-and-mortar presence, Bank of America's support of the Jersey City community is clearly evident through philanthropic giving and volunteer efforts."
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... y_councilwoman_outra.html