Farmers & Merchants Bank, of Spokane, plans to open a branch inside the Albertsons Inc. store at Cedar Canyon Village at the southeast corner of 57th Avenue and Regal Street, says John Tombari, the banks chief operating officer.


The bank wants to open the branch early this winter, Tombari says. Farmers & Merchants has applied to state and federal regulators for permission to open the branch, and expects regulators to issue a decision within a month.


The planned branch would be a full-service branch with an automated-teller machine that would be available even when the branch is closed. The branch would occupy about 400 square feet of space and would employ three or four people, Tombari says.


The branch would be Farmers & Merchants first in an Albertsons store. The bank currently operates in-store branches in Tidymans LLC and Safeway Inc. supermarkets in the Spokane area. The bank has a total of 12 branchesboth in-store and stand-alonenow and expects to open another new branch this fall in a Safeway store at Liberty Lake.


Tombari says the Cedar Canyon Village location will complement Farmers & Merchants branch network and will extend the banks presence into the growing Moran Prairie neighborhood south of Spokane.


U.S. Bank announced in January that it planned to open a branch inside the new Albertsons at Cedar Canyon Village, but later scrapped those plans, says Barbara Nombalais, U.S. Banks Seattle-based spokeswoman. She says that for now she doesnt know of any plans by U.S. Bank to open additional branches on Spokanes South Hill.