The ever-increasing use of technology continues to reduce the number of bank branches in Italy, especially in the internal areas (but not only) where by now over 4 million people live in municipalities without branches. The calculation comes from the observatory of the Fiba foundation, of the First Cisl union, based on data from the Bank of Italy and Istat. The reduction, constant for some years, now sees the branches in our country below 20 thousand units. And over 3,200 municipalities without branches.
The phenomenon is in a certain way inevitable. The number of customers who go to the bank in person has drastically reduced given the widespread use of e-banking, digital signatures and assistance via email, chat or telephone and the disappearance of cash. Yet our country, both for the demographic profile of the population and for the nature of its territory, the banking unions denounce, due to the decline in branches risks seeing territorial and social inequalities increase. In fact, not all customers, especially the elderly, know how to handle technology and the branches are a point of attraction and aggregation for the local economy. For their part, the banks underline, as already emerged in the round table convened at the Cnel on the subject (which will meet again in September), how often in these municipalities even essential services such as a pharmacy or a train station or even a simple tobacconist are now missing.
Certain, the network of post offices, even in small towns, and that of the BCCs still holds up, but this is precisely a general problem of the country and its changes. The solutions proposed and seen in other countries are varied: from ‘smart’ counters to mobile branches, to financial literacy courses. The remaining branches themselves are changing skin. Less and less ‘cassà, armored and guarded and more consultancy with open premises equipped with lounges and offices. In the first six months of 2024, in fact, Italian banks closed another 163 branches but there were 101 openings operated by Banca Cesare Ponti dedicated to private banking, within existing Bper branches. The phenomenon is however transversal to the entire national territory: from the ranking that emerges from the First Cisl data, among the least desertified provinces there are those of Barletta-Andria-Trani, Brindisi, Grosseto, Ragusa, Ravenna, Reggio Emilia and Pisa. The large cities are in more backward positions: Milan is 24th, Rome 41st, Naples 50th. At the bottom of the rankings we find Vibo Valentia and Isernia.