The closings of bank branches in Italy do not stop. From the data processed by the banking desertification of the FIBA FIBA Foundation of First Cisl, it is obtained as in the first six months of 2025 the Italian banks closed 261 branches, a drop of 1.3% compared to the end of 2024. The second quarter marked an acceleration compared to the first, when the closings had been 95. The cuts to the physical network did not invested the different areas of the country. The most affected regions were Friuli Venezia Giulia (- 2.3%), Marche (- 2.3%), Sicily, Veneto and Basilicata (- 1.9%).
“The effects of bank risiko start on the physical network,” notes the observatory. Bper, also considering the network of Banca Popolare di Sondrio branches, becomes the first reality in Lombardy (673 branches, equal to 17.9%of the total) in front of Banco Bpm (523, 13.9%), Intesa Sanpaolo and Iccrea (both at 501, 13.4%). “In the richest Italian region, about 58% of the branches are now in the hands of only four groups: a data, the latter, destined not to undergo significant variations due to the antitrust prescriptions addressed to Bper, to which the sale of only six doors was imposed”.
There are over 3400 municipalities without bank branches
In the first six months of 2025 another 34 municipalities remained without bank branches on their territory. This is what emerges from the ‘Banking Desertification Observatory of the FIBA Foundation of First Cisl, which processes the data made available at 30 June 2025 by Banca d’Italia and Istat according to which the total number’ Debancarizzatì has therefore risen to 3,415, equal to 43.2% of the total. For the research «it also continues to increase the number of people who do not have access to banking services or risk losing it: compared to 31 December 2024 there are over 11.2 million. Of these, more than 4.7 million (+ 1.8%) live in totally desertified municipalities; Almost 6.5 million (+ 3%) in municipalities being deserted, those with a single counter. Furthermore, the number of companies that have their headquarters in desertificated municipalities is growing: there are 6,116 more than the previous quarter. The significant dimensions of the centers affected by desertification are also confirmed: there are 13 municipalities above the 10 thousand inhabitants without a counter, of which one has more than 20 thousand inhabitants (Trentola Ducenta, in the province of Caserta). According to the union “to understand the real scope of the phenomenon, the data must be read in parallel with those on the spread of the internet banking, still modest: in Italy only 55% of users use it against an EU average of 67.2%. From this it is clear that bank desertification represents an accelerator of social exclusion, especially for the elderly of the population, penalized by the lower level of digital skills.