The slimming cure of the banks in Italy continues. This is highlighted by the data published by the ECB, which show the number of branches of domestic institutions falling to 30.723 at the end of 2014, a thousand less than in 2013 and almost three thousand less than in 2010.
There was also a clear decline in employees, who fell below 300 units. At the end of 2014 there were 299.684 employees, seven thousand less than the previous year and over 21 thousand less than the 321 thousand in 2010.
The haemorrhage of bank branches and employees concerns the whole of Europe. Bank branches in the Eurozone fell to 159.400 from 164.200 a year earlier and 182.500 in 2010. In the EU, the decline at the end of last year was to 204.140 branches from 211.100 in 2013 and 230.600 five years ago. The number of employees decreased to 2,02 million in the euro area (from 2,06 million in 2013) and to 2,88 million in the EU (from 2,96 million).
