A veritable hemorrhage of bankers. Or a downsizing of the banking giants. It depends on the points of view but what is certain is that in the decade 2008-2018 there was a strong trend towards a reduction in the number of branches (-27,7%) and in the number of bank employees (-17%) throughout the 'European Union. In Italy, even more: branches decreased by -25,5% branches and bank employees fell by -18,9%.
It is one of the most striking data among those that emerged from the annual update of the survey on the main international credit institutions published by the Mediobanca research area. It is a phenomenon that the analysts of Piazzetta Cuccia call the banking downsizing.
In absolute terms, there are 8.715 fewer branches in our country than ten years ago, while the drop in bank employees is equal to 63.979 units. Going into the details of the individual institutions, and also including their foreign activities, the greatest drop is that recorded by Unicredit which went from 176 employees in 2008 to 93.348 at the end of last year (-45,3%) also due to the several sales made in recent years by the institute led by Jean Pierre Mustier.
Among the big Italians, Mps follows with 9.738 fewer employees (-29,6%), Banco Bpm with 7.644 fewer (-25,9% compared to the 2008 pre-merger figure between Bpm and Banco Popolare) and, lastly, Intesa Sanpaolo which went from 108 employees to 92.117 (-15%) despite the 8.877 employees of the former Venetian banks absorbed by the group in 2017.
Coming then to the ranking of total assets, 2018 is once again the year of Chinese banks, which occupy the top three positions in the world ranking. Confirmed in first place Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, with assets of 3.517 billion euros. Second place swap: Agricultural Bank of China (with 2.871 billion) exceeds China Construction Bank (2.856 billion).
The American giant off the podium J.P. Morgan Chase (2.703 billion), the only non-Chinese bank in the top five, closely followed by another Chinese giant: Bank of China (2.701 billion). Sixth place belongs again this year to Japanese Mitsubishi (2.472 billion), followed by the US Bank of Americato (2.305 billion). Eighth place for the French Bnp Paribas (2.276 billion), first European bank in the standings and recovering one position compared to 2017. The second European bank completes the top ten HSBC (2.275 billion) which loses two positions and the American Citigroup (1.980 billion). Still behind are the Italian banks which, compared to the previous survey, have both lost four positions: UniCredit (with 848 billion assets) is 26th e Intesa Sanpaolo (817 billion) is 29th.
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