PeoplesBank plans office at Bethany Village in Lower Allen

PeoplesBank is planning to open a limited-service branch in Bethany Village, a retirement community in Lower Allen Township, Cumberland County.

The bank, based in York Township, York County, has asked state regulators for permission to open the office, which would offer fewer hours than a traditional full-service branch. It would replace a now-closed office operated by Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank.

If approved, the PeoplesBank office would open later this year as the bank’s first at a retirement community in Cumberland. It has offices at five senior-living communities in Lancaster County and six in York, according to Kristen Heisey, the bank’s director of marketing and client experience.

“A lot of banks are moving out of senior-living communities, and we really see it as a need to serve that group of people,” Heisey said.

The Bethany Village office would be open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. and by appointment, Heisey said.

PNC closed its Bethany Village branch in November 2017 and consolidated it with an office in downtown Mechanicsburg, according to Amy Vargo, a PNC spokeswoman.

“PNC remains committed to branch banking,” Vargo wrote in an email. “We routinely review our branch network to ensure we are serving our customers as efficiently as possible. In some cases, this leads us to the difficult, but necessary decision to consolidate branch locations. In other cases, we may open new branches or relocate exiting branches. When consolidation occurs, we continue to serve our customers and the communities through other, nearby PNC branches, ATMs and through our online and mobile banking offerings.”

PeoplesBank has branches throughout Central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland. It is the chief operating subsidiary of Codorus Valley Bancorp Inc., which had assets of $1.8 billion as of March 31.