Our Blog

The Banks Are Leaving Downtown Belleville. We're Not.

September 24, 2026 | Posted by: Craig Nickerson

If you've walked down Front Street lately, you've probably noticed the gaps. In March 2017, RBC closed its downtown branch at Front and Campbell, citing a 30% drop in foot traffic and a shift toward online banking. This past January, TD closed its Front Street branch too, folding its accounts into the North Front and College Street location a few kilometres away. And this August, CIBC is closing its Front and Campbell Banking Centre, the same corner where RBC once stood, for the same reason: fewer people walking in the door.

Three branches, one downtown, under a decade. That's not a coincidence. It's a trend, and it's worth understanding if you're about to make one of the biggest financial decisions of your life.

Why the banks are leaving

Every time one of these closures gets announced, the explanation is some version of the same thing: 'changing consumer habits.' And it's true. Most day-to-day banking has genuinely moved online, and for checking a balance or depositing a cheque, that's fine. Nobody's nostalgic for standing in line to deposit a cheque.

But a mortgage isn't day-to-day banking. It's the largest debt most people will ever take on, wrapped around the biggest purchase of their life, and it comes with more moving parts than an app can walk you through: qualifying rules that changed six months ago, lenders with different appetites for self-employed income, penalty clauses buried in page four of a renewal offer, timing that has to line up with a closing date that won't move. When the local branch closes, that kind of conversation doesn't move to an app. It moves to a call centre, answering to a script, with whoever happens to pick up, and it's rarely the same person twice.

What hasn't changed

I've been arranging mortgages for homeowners in Trenton, Quinte West, Belleville and the Bay of Quinte for 30 years, and I'm not going anywhere. Same office. Same phone number. Same person answering when you call or text, not a queue, not a different rep every time your file gets transferred.

That's also, practically speaking, an advantage the departing bank branches never gave you in the first place. I'm not limited to one lender's rate sheet and one lender's rules. I work with dozens of lenders across the market, which means when your situation doesn't fit neatly into a big bank's box (self-employed income, a recent move, a first home, a renewal that deserves a second look before you just sign what arrives in the mail), there's usually still a good answer. I just have to actually know where to look for it, and that's the part 30 years buys you.

It's also why readers across Quinte West and the Bay of Quinte have voted me their favourite mortgage broker more than 10 times in the Readers' Choice and Community Votes awards. We live in this community, invest in this community, and have deep local knowledge of the lenders best suited to place financing in this community. That doesn't happen from a call centre.

If you're in Belleville

Whether you're buying your first home, renewing a mortgage that's coming due, refinancing, or just want a second opinion before you sign whatever the bank mails you, I'd rather you talk to a person than a phone tree. Call or text me directly at 613-394-5810, or send a message and I'll get back to you myself.

The banks might be consolidating out of downtown. I'm still here.

Back to Main Blog Page