Filenews 12 June 2024
Banks closed 482 branches in ten years and reduced their staff by 4,613, according to an analysis of data released by the ECB, highlighting the rapid changes in the Cypriot banking system that took place between 2013 and 2023.
The first major shock to shake the banking system was in 2013, with the absorption of Laiki by the Bank of Cyprus, and the changes culminated in the absorption of the Co-operative by Hellenic Bank in 2018.
Smaller mergers and acquisitions contributed to the reduction in banks' size, such as the acquisition of Emporiki Bank by Alpha Bank in 2014 and the absorption of USB by Astrobank.
In 2020, with the COVID pandemic, came the second wave of change, which put digitalization in customers' lives and the transformation began, leading to a new shrinking of the banking network and a reduction of bank employees through generous voluntary exit schemes.
Data published by the ECB show that in 2023 the number of bank branches in Cyprus stands at 200, the number of bank employees is 6,529, while the average number of bank branches in the Eurozone is 106,379 and employees 1,766,120. Latvia has the smallest branch network (61), with 5,111 employees, followed by Estonia with 62 stores and 6,153 employees. In Greece, the number of bank branches is 1,413 and bank employees 28,506.
In the remaining countries, the figures for 2023 are as follows: Austria 3,185 stores and 66,258 employees, Belgium 1,735 stores and 18,344 employees, Croatia 799 stores and 18,344 employees, Czech Republic 1,367 stores and 37,425 employees, Finland 753 stores and 21,015 employees, France 33,526 stores and 389,240 employees.
In France there are 33,536 bank branches and 389,240 employees, in Portugal 3,514 branches and 50,993 employees, in Spain 17,820 bank branches and 161,348 employees, in Slovakia 910 bank branches and 17,059 employees, in Slovenia 410 branches and 8,496 employees, in Lithuania 379 branches and 6,751 employees.
In its analysis, the ECB says that in 2023 the number of bank branches in most EU Member States continued to decrease by an average of 3.09% and the number of bank employees decreased by 0.81% on average. The data also show that the degree of concentration of the banking sector (measured by the share of assets held by the five largest banks) continues to vary considerably between EU Member States.
At national level, the share of total assets of the five largest credit institutions ranged from 32.34% (Luxembourg) to 95.58% (Greece) at the end of 2023, while the EU average was 68.6%.
