Selon une étude de Sia Partners, 15% des agences bancaires françaises vont fermer d'ici 2024. Une accélération liée notamment au Covid.

32,276 currently;27,578 in 2024.According to a study by SIA Partners unveiled by Les Echos, France will lose nearly 4,700 banking agencies in the next three years, or 15% of the current park.A downward trend that is not new, but which accelerates slightly."Over the 2016-2020 period, network size in France had, in fact, decreased by 13.4%," recalls the economic daily.

Why this acceleration?The pandemic has obviously been there.Admittedly, the French banks, which were part of the basic businesses, remained open during the various confinements.Customers, however, have taken up new habits, relating to the mobile particularly.According to a recent study by Deloitte, 42% of banking customers use the application of their bank in 2021, against 34% and 2019, while the agency's appeal is down 12 points over the same period.A context that "leads banks to further optimize their distribution networks", note the Les Echos.This is particularly the case of Société Générale which will take advantage of the merger of its network with that of the North Credit to close 650 points of sale out of 2,100.

The decline of banking agencies

Un rythme de fermeture beaucoup plus lent en France

Despite this acceleration, France will remain the European country, with the highest density of banking agencies.This is currently 481 agencies for one million inhabitants, against 389 in Italy, 290 in Germany or...54 in the Netherlands!Among our neighbors, the rate of reduction of networks should, moreover, be much faster by 2024: 25%, according to Sia Partners.

A particularism that is due to competition between major mutual networks (Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel, Caisse d'Epargne).The latter close agencies, but at a rate twice lower than national brands (Société Générale, BNP Paribas, LCL).They continue, in fact, to favor a relatively dense network of the territory, for reasons of maintaining their market share, but also of image.

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