Jul. 30--HUDSON -- Bank of America is closing its Hudson branch Friday as part of a nationwide plan to shrink its network of physical locations.

Spokeswoman Anne Pace said the branch at 45 Lowell Road is one of two in New Hampshire slated for closure as more customers turn to online banking. The other is in Manchester.

The Hudson building is listed for sale by CB Richard Ellis, and bids for the property are due by Aug. 15, said Gary J. Lemire, senior vice president and partner with the commercial real estate firm.

"There have been a number of people that have expressed interest in it," Lemire said.

After the two closures, Bank of America will have at least 34 branches remaining in New Hampshire, including four in Nashua, according to the company's Web site. There are two standalone ATMs in Hudson.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America Corp. could eventually shrink its 6,100-branch network by about 10 percent, The Associated Press reported Tuesday, citing Bank of America spokesman James Mahoney.

Mahoney made the comments when asked about a Wall Street Journal report that CEO Ken Lewis and another bank executive described such a plan to investors at a meeting last week.

The move would be a pullback from the bank's two-decade expansion, most recently under Lewis' command, which expanded the bank from coast to coast.

"What took place was a discussion about the long-term direction of the company," Mahoney said. "Over the longer term, as customer demands evolve, we see a fewer number of branches that provide more services."

Pace told The Telegraph this week that although the number of banking centers may decrease in the future, no final decisions have been made about the ultimate size of the bank's branch network. There are no immediate plans to close 10 percent of the branches, she said.

Pace said the bank is consolidating in areas where there are several branch locations in close radius.

She also said Bank of America customers are increasingly turning to online and mobile methods of banking. The nation's largest bank has 29 million customers that use online banking and 3 million that use the newer mobile banking service for smart phones, she said.

However, Richard Bove of Rochdale Research told The Associated Press this week that the reason for the closures is both economic and regulatory.

"While the bank is likely to close the branches, the reason being given is simply farcical," Bove wrote in a research note Tuesday.