Banks and savings banks are continuing to expand their branch networks. But many customers don’t miss anything.
For the first time, there are fewer than 20,000 bank branches in Germany. Banks and savings banks in this country were still operating 19,501 locations staffed by employees at the end of December, as the Bundesbank in Frankfurt announced.
That was 945 or 4.6 percent less than a year ago. “The increasing spread of online banking and the ongoing cost pressure have led to a streamlining of the branch network in virtually all banking sectors,” stated the Bundesbank.
Because many people do banking transactions on their home computers or via an app on their smartphone, financial institutions have been thinning out their expensive branch network for years and trying to maintain their presence outside of fixed locations: for example through video advice, advice centers with longer opening hours, including on Saturdays Sparkasse buses or shared branches across institute boundaries.
The pace of branch reductions has slowed somewhat
In a recently published survey by the digital association Bitkom, almost half (49 percent) of the 1,004 respondents said that they would “not miss anything” if there were no more bank branches. Meanwhile, according to current Bundesbank figures, the pace of branch closures slowed last year.
In the Corona years 2021 (2388 branches closed) and 2022 (1266), the pandemic increased the trend towards online banking, which ultimately led to a significantly higher percentage of branch closures. Pure vending machine locations are not taken into account in the statistics.
According to the Bundesbank figures, most of the branches are still operated by the savings banks and state banks with 7,104 locations at the end of last year. The cooperative banks, which include the Volks- and Raiffeisenbanken, have 6,588 branches.
According to the information, 52 mergers, primarily in the cooperative sector, are also the main reason why the number of credit institutions in Germany fell by 55 to 1,403 institutions last year.
Source: Stern
