In 2024 the phenomenon of banking desertification has undergone a new acceleration, With the Closure of 508 branches, which brought the total number of branches below 20 thousand at national level. The decline, equal to 2,5% compared to the end of the previous year, reached its peak in the final quarter, the most critical since 2022, with 432 branches closed, in addition to 82 municipalities that lost all banking access points. A real exodus that deprived approximately 230 thousand Italians of the possibility of carrying out banking operations directly in their municipality.
This is what emerges from the latest update of theObservatory on banking desertification di First Cisl, which processes the data made available as of 31 December 2024 by Bankitalia and Istat.
Banking Desertification 2024: The Regions Most Affected
The analysis of the phenomenon revealed that the closure of branches did not affect the entire territory in a uniform way. most affected regions they have been there Valle d'Aosta (-7,5%), theUmbria (-4,3%) and the Sardinia (-3,9%), while others, such as Emilia Romagna (-0,9%), Calabria (-0,6%) And Liguria, have recorded changes more content, with some reopenings that kept the overall number stable. In reality, there were 609 total closures, but the figure is influenced by the 101 openings of Banca Private Cesare Ponti, which opened branches mainly in the south, within existing branches of the Bper Group, focused on private banking, an increasingly widespread trend in the Italian banking landscape.
More and more municipalities without branches: the phenomenon is spreading also in the North
In 2024, the phenomenon of banking desertification hit 101 other municipalities hard, which were left without branches. The real surge, however, occurred in last three months of the year, which were the worst since the beginning of the surveys of the Fiba Foundation Observatory, with 82 abandoned municipalities. Thus, the total number of centers without counters rose to 3.381, equal to 42,8% of the total. Not only is the number growing, but also the size of the municipalities involved: for the first time, in fact, a municipality of over 20 thousand inhabitants, Trentola Ducenta in the province of Caserta, has remained without branches. And the list of municipalities in difficulty could be extended, considering that even some municipalities with over 30 thousand inhabitants, such as Mugnano di Napoli, risk being left without a counter. Furthermore, a municipality in Piedmont, Rivalta di Torino, shows that the phenomenon is rising towards the North.
The dramatic impact of banking desertification on Italians
While on the one hand we observe an increasing number of abandoned municipalities, on the other hand the number of Italians and they do not have physical access to banking services: over 4,6 million (6,5% more than the previous year) live in totally desertified municipalities. About 6,3 million (4,5% more) live in municipalities with only one office, destined to close. Even the companies in desertified municipalities have grown, reaching 282.688 units, with an increase of 18.834 compared to last year.
The situation is particularly serious for the older population groups, who not only have lower digital skills, but are also penalised by a limited access to internet banking, which in Italy is used by only 55% of users (against the EU average of 67,2%). The gap is even more marked in the 65-74 age group, where only 33,9% of Italians use online banking services, compared to the European average of 44,7%.
Desertification Indicator: the least affected provinces and the municipalities in difficulty
The Observatory on banking desertification of the Fiba Foundation has created a “Provincial Desertification Indicator” (Ipd) which assigns a score to each Italian province, based on municipalities without or with a counter, population, local businesses and surface area. standings updated to December 2024 tells us that the least “desertified” provinces are Barletta-Andria-Trani, Toast, Grosseto, Pisa, Ragusa, Ravenna e Reggio Emilia. The big cities, on the other hand, rank lower: Milan it's at 22nd, Rome at 39th e Napoli at 45°. At the bottom we find Vibo Valentia e Isernia.
Colombani: “The possible effects of the banking risk are worrying”
Riccardo Columbans, general secretary of First Cisl, expresses great concern for the acceleration of the phenomenon and for the possible consequences of the bank risk. According to Colombani, the continued concentration of the banking system, "accelerated by the latest operations, could lead to new closures of counters and a reduction of services, with a direct impact on theoccupation. Ever larger municipalities risk losing even the last counter, creating enormous inconvenience for communities, especially for the most vulnerable people.”
Peer counteract this “digital desertification”, Colombani proposes the creation of “regional observatories on banking activity and drawing up sustainability rankings of banks, which evaluate not only the physical presence of branches, but also digital education programs for customers, essential especially in the most affected regions, such as Calabria or Campania, where the municipalities without branches are, respectively, 74% and 55,3% and internet banking – concludes Colombani – is used by just a third of the population”.
