Bank branches disappear in Italy: in 2024 another 508 closed. Hundreds of municipalities without more branches in the area

Bank desertification alarm. In 2024 another 508 bank branches were closed bringing the number of branches below 20 thousand. Overall, the drop was 2.5% compared to the end of 2023, with a strong acceleration in the last quarter of the year, in which 432 branches were closed. In just three months about 230 thousand Italians have lost the opportunity to enter a bank in their municipality of residence. This is what emerges since the last update of the Observatory on Banking Desertification of First Cisl, which processes the data made available at 31 December 2024 by Banca d’Italia and Istat.

The cuts in the physical bank network have not invested the different areas of the country homogeneously. The most affected regions were Valle d’Aosta (- 7.5%), Umbria (- 4.3%) and Sardinia (- 3.9%). The account for Emilia Romagna (- 0.9%), Calabria (- 0.6%) and Liguria is decidedly less heavy, where the balance between openings and closures was unchanged. The overall closures, in reality, have reached 609, but at the statistical level the data is altered by the 101 openings operated, in an almost uniform way on the national territory, with the exception of some areas of the South, by private bank Cesare Ponti. These are structures obtained within already existing branches of the BPER group and which are dedicated to private banking, according to a trend that is consolidated in the Italian banking system.

According to research, In 2024 another 101 municipalities remained free of branches on their territory. Only in the last three months, the worst since the beginning of the surveys of the Fiba Foundation Observatory, were 82. The total number has therefore risen to 3,381, equal to 42.8% of the total. However, the number does not increase, but also the size of the centers affected by desertification: for the first time a municipality remains without a counter with more than 20 thousand inhabitants (Trentola Ducenta, in the province of Caserta). Another given that stands out is the presence between the latter of a Piedmontese municipality, Rivalta di Torino, demonstrating that the desert line is moving further and further north.

The number of people who do not have access to banking services or risks losing it also increases: there are about 11 million, half a million more than a year ago. Of these, over 4.6 million (+ 6.5%) live in totally desertified municipalities; Almost 6.3 million (+ 4.5%) in municipalities being deserted, those with a single counter. Furthermore, the number of companies that have their headquarters in desertificated municipalities is growing: they are 282,688, 18,834 more than 2023.

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 deserting represents an accelerator of social exclusion, especially for the elderly bands of the population, penalized by the lower level of digital skills (between 65 and 74 years only 33.9% use the Internet Banking against an EU average of 44.7%).

The Banking Desertification Observatory of the FIBA ​​Foundation also processes an indicator (IPD, provincial deserting indicator) which assigns each Italian province a score based on the percentage, calculated on their respective totals, the number of municipalities without a counter or with a counter, of the resident population, of the companies with registered office in these municipalities and the relative surface. The ranking that emerges sees in December 2024 among the least desertified provinces are those of Barlettaandria-Trani, Brindisi, Grosseto, Pisa, Ragusa, Ravenna, Reggio Emilia. The big cities are located in more backward positions: Milan is 22, Rome 39, Naples 45. On the latest steps of the classic we find Vibo Valentia and Isernia.

“The acceleration of the closures in the last quarter of 2024, the worst since the Observatory of the Fiba Foundation has started its detections, tells us that banks intend to continue compressing costs by reducing their presence in the area – underlines the secretary General First Cisl Riccardo Colombani -. To worry is not only the number of abandoned municipalities, which is approaching the middle of the total, but also their size. The process of further concentration of the system, which extends with the operations announced in recent weeks, could bring shortly, with the overlapping between the Siche nets on the territories, to cost reductions based on new cuts of doors and services and to a further one contraction of employment in the sector. In and bigger municipalities, in this case, would also see the last counter also close, with serious inconvenience for the communities and above all for fragile people “.