May 8, 2024
Today at
08:14
In 2023, Belgium still had 3,243 manned bank branches. This is again 10 percent less than a year earlier, according to figures from the banking federation Febelfin.
The rise of digital banking means that many bank customers almost never have to visit their branch again. This has been evident for years in the reduction of the branch networks of banks in our country. Over the past 30 years, more than eight out of ten bank branches have disappeared. Febelfin statistics show that in 1993 there were still 17,757 agencies. Last year only a fifth of that was left.
At 9.7 percent, the decline to 3,243 customer branches in 2023 is the fourth largest in the past decade. Only in 2018, 2020 and 2021 was the percentage higher. The fact that these are all relatively recent years speaks for the decline of the traditional bank branch. If the pace continues this year, the total will fall below the 3,000 mark.
Major banks
The decrease was by far the largest last year among financial institutions with their own offices (-12.4%). These are mainly the four major banks BNP Paribas Fortis, KBC, Belfius and ING. However, KBC points out that it only closed one staffed office last year. The networks of independent banking agents held up better (-6.2%). Both branches of the sector are roughly the same size. Logically, the lion’s share (70%) of the agencies can be found in Flanders.
Despite the continued decline in the number of bank branches, Belgians remain relatively well-off compared to other European countries. Our country had 307 offices per million inhabitants in 2022. That is slightly more than the EU average of 299 agencies. Bulgaria (664), France and Spain took the crown, the Netherlands (41) came last. Six EU countries performed better than our country in 2022.
Also fewer banks
Moreover, the number of banks active in Belgium is also continuously declining. Last year there were 77, two fewer than a year earlier. This mainly concerns banks governed by foreign law. In 1980, our country had almost 100 more banks. The change in the number in 2023 is partly the result of the disappearance of NewB and the arrival of neobank Revolut.
Those 77 banks accounted for a balance sheet total of 1,302 billion euros. They managed 817.5 billion euros in customer deposits and 606.6 billion euros in customer loans. There is no figure yet for the number of employees in the sector for 2023. The year before, the 79 banks employed almost 46,000 people, according to Febelfin figures.
