Il Italian banking system it is the fourth largest in Europe. According to a union report First Cisl on national banking systems, according to which Germany, Austria and Poland are ahead of Italy, while France and Spain have fewer banks.
In addition to the number of banks, however, to evaluate the size of a system it is necessary to evaluate the size of the banks. According to First Cisl, the picture that emerges from this point of view is that of a banking system which, however absolute value, is somewhere between Germany and France and ranks above Spain. The majority of Italian institutions are small but, thanks to the integration of cooperative banks, it is not, in any case, a fragmented system.
On the other hand, the first five large groups have a market share close to 40%, a share which in France rises to 47%, while in Germany the concentration of the system is less than in Italy. Also evaluating the number of non-financial companies, economic counterparts of the banks, and considering their size, according to First Cisl, the Italian banking system seems consistent with the country's production profile, recording numbers in line with other European countries comparable in size.
Are there too many bank branches?
The study then tries to answer the question whether or not there are too many branches in Italy: the trend of reducing branches, in fact, is a European trend currently underway, mainly due to cost cutting by banks and the increased use of technology by consumers, which reduces access to branches.
From a numerical point of view, Italy has fewer branches than France (which has fewer banks), Spain and Germany, while it has more branches than Poland.
Comparing the number of branches to the population, Italy has fewer branches per inhabitant than France and Spain, but more than Poland and Germany, while the branches for companies are fewer than in all the other more populous countries. The number of branches per municipality is lower than in Spain and Poland but higher than in Germany and France. Finally, Italy has an average gross domestic product per branch slightly lower than France, much lower than Germany but higher than Spain and Poland.
In the specific Italian case, the trend towards a reduction in bank branches has been partially offset within the system, where large groups reduce or rationalize their network while small banks and Cooperative Credit expand theirs. The reduction mainly involved the larger centres: 1.942 branches were lost in the municipalities (521) with at least 10 branches, i.e. 67% of the total reduction. The other 33% got lost in the remaining centres. 119 municipalities were left without a bank branch.
In conclusion, according to the Firs Cisl report, if it is to exist, the rationalization process will have to be carried out with great attention to the risk of increasing concentration, thus reducing the banking offer.
Are there too many bank employees?
Italy has fewer bank employees than countries of comparable size: Italian bank employees, in fact, are discretely fewer than in France and decidedly fewer than in Germany. Spain and Poland have a smaller number.
Italy is the country with the smallest branches after Spain, with the average well below that of Germany, however less than France and Poland. Each employee must "serve" 203 natural persons, many more than Germany and France, less than Poland and Spain. The same average employee must "serve" 12 and a half companies, which is the highest number of all the small comparison sample.
The number of employees, therefore, according to First Cisl, is not oversized from any point of view compared to the current state of the Italian economic and banking system. A possible reduction in personnel, rather than a rationalization, would risk translating into a lower income potential and therefore into a further setback of the system in providing adequate services to the country.
Attachments: First Cisl Survey http://firstonline-data.teleborsa.it/news/files/1379.docx
