It’s a question Jim Langin hears from his bank customers occasionally, and it goes something like this: “How are you guys making it with all the new banks around town?”

Good question. Seventeen new bank branches have opened in Greater Des Moines in the past two years, and many Central Iowa institutions are continuing to build and plan for additional locations.

“We don’t feel there’s a shortage of clients,” said Langin, president of Bank Iowa’s new West Des Moines branch, which plans to open Tuesday at the corner of Jordan Creek Parkway and Office Plaza Drive. “I think what people need to realize is that many of the new offices are branches of existing banks. I believe that there’s plenty to go around. We have great clients and we’re here to build relationships, and we feel that’s going to be our edge.”

Right now, Greater Des Moines has a higher concentration of bank branches relative to the number of households than most major Midwest metropolitan areas, including Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee and Kansas City. That’s according to data tracked by Bancography, an Alabama-based banking consultant.

Greater Des Moines has one bank branch for every 987 households, which is a greater bank density than the national average of 1,150 households per branch. By comparison, Minneapolis-St. Paul has nearly 1,500 households per branch, while Kansas City has just over 1,000.

However, some other mid-sized Midwestern metropolitan areas have an even greater concentration of branches, among them Cedar Rapids and the Quad Cities. Both of those regions have fewer than 900 households per branch, according to Bancography’s numbers.

“When compared against other small to mid-sized Midwestern metros, Des Moines’ ratio of households to branches does not appear excessive,” said Steven Reider, Bancography’s owner. Actually, Des Moines is about in the middle of the pack among cities its size. Also, larger metros have higher population densities, and so can support more people with fewer offices, he said.

Many banks aim for an average of $10 million in annual deposit growth when planning a new branch, but only about 10 percent of new offices nationally meet or exceed that goal, according to Bancography’s Web site. The median gain in annual deposits from new branches has been about $1 million.

It’s not just the local banks that are adding offices.

“We’re seeing a lot of banks from rural communities looking to diversify their markets by moving into the metropolitan markets,” said John Sorensen, president of the Iowa Bankers Association. “That’s a result of changes in the branching law about five years ago so there are no restrictions on where in the state you can branch.

That creates a more competitive environment.”

Paul Erickson, a senior vice president with Bankers Trust Co., said similar branch density numbers he’s seen recently from an analysis conducted for his bank “would certainly cause us to look a little harder (before) adding more and more branches. … We’re also going to consider who else is coming into the market.” Bankers Trust opened a branch in Ankeny in 2005 and plans to add another branch in Altoona this year, he said.

Even those who shake their heads at all the new branches have to admit: it’s nice having their bank close by.

A 2004 Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. report on the future of banking noted: “To a large extent, the increase in branches has also been driven by demand, as consumers seem to like the convenience of bank branches. Indeed, surveys conducted by the Federal Reserve Board indicate that the single most important factor influencing a customer’s choice of banks is the location of the institution’s branches.”