Banks: 389 municipalities without branches 6,289 branches closed in seven years

Compared to seven years ago, in Italy, there were 6,289 bank branches less, network staff decreased by 26,249 employees and 383 municipalities remained totally bankless. In fact, the municipalities serviced by at least one bank branch were 5,906 at the end of 2010 and 5,523 at the end of last year. The pace of closures at the end of 2010 was 18.7% versus a 7.5% decline in agency access. This is the point on the coverage of the banking network in the country made by First, a syndicate of banks Cisl.

"In a single year we went from 48 to 45 branches per 100,000 people." More than a quarter of the branches lost in the last seven years were closed in 2017 alone. If you continue at this rate in fifteen years, there would be no more physical presence of banks in the region, "says Riccardo Colombani, head of the First Cisl Research Office. Marginal areas, inhabited by an older population, remain untreated. "Citizens are forced to keep more money available at home, which may pave the way for petty crime. The impact on the local economy is also underestimated: seven years ago, there were 7.6 branches per 1,000 companies, they are more than 6.2, "says Colombani. [19659004] According to First, electronic banking can not replace physics. Colombani continues: "We have more than one home banking contract per family (seven years ago, there was only 68 families out of 100) and 71 out of 100 businesses are connected online with their bank (46 in 2010), yet Italians continue to enter the industry: in 26 million, they are still turning to a bank branch, 51.7 % of the adult population.The problem is that the collapse in the number of bank employees has a slowdown in service, so that 15% of customers say that they have to queue more than 20 minutes against 14% in 2011: it's as if it's a strategy of banks to leave as few people as possible e in the branch and thus continue the blind closures and cutting of personnel ".

In summary, First Cisl General Secretary Giulio Romani: "The truth is that banks have turned into distributors of mbad financial products, such as the sale of mobile phones or clothing, and are therefore targeting mainly reduce costs. It is therefore useless to hope for economic recovery, a socially useful reform of the banking system is urgent and the opportunity to revive it is the next renewal of national contracts ".