The Regions Bank drive through at the intersection of Broad Street and Highland Avenue will remain open despite the nearby branch consolidating with the downtown location later this month.

On April 28, the branch at 2412 Broad Street will merge with one on Church Street. However, Regions Senior Vice President Ed McCurdy said the bank’s drive-through will remain open in north Selma.

“We want to make it clear that two out of the three properties that Regions has in Selma will remain open and serving our customers,” McCurdy said. “We are not leaving Broad Street or north Alabama, we have the large drive through facility right there that will continue. It will remain open, and we will service our customers there.”

McCurdy said the bank is committed to Selma.

“Regions is committed to Selma. We have been a part of this community for many years and our presence in this community will continue,” McCurdy said. “We have full intentions of continuing to operate here in Selma. All the employees — we live here and we work here. Most of us have been here for a long time. Selma is very important to Regions as a company.”

The bank looks at criteria such as customer traffic, volume and the location of nearby branches when making a decision to close a branch, according to McCurdy.

“With all that in mind, we did make the difficult decision to consolidate the branches,” McCurdy said.

He said the banking industry as a whole is having to take a strategic approach to how customers are served with new technology.

“What we are trying to do is best identify how we can use our resources as efficiently as possible,” McCurdy said.

There is no denying that technology and new service options are changing our industry. These days when people need to deposit a check or transfer money, a lot of them do it by themselves, over their phones, on a computer or through an ATM anytime of the day or night,” McCurdy said. “At the same time we need to make sure our branches are optimized to best meet the needs of our people who rely on our physical locations. Most of our new accounts we open, people walk into branches to open their accounts or to have any kind of service done on their accounts. We will continue to have our physical locations, especially here in Selma.

The Broad Street branch will close April 28 at 2 p.m. Anyone using the branch for banking will not need to do anything. According to McCurdy, all accounts will be transferred to the Church Street branch.

The downtown branch is located at 101 Church Street. Hours for Monday through Thursday are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for the lobby and 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m for drive-up. Friday’s hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the lobby and 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. for drive-up.