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Bank branch desertification in Italy

Updated 8 times since CLSTR started tracking revisions of this situation.

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2026-09-10 11:32 UTC → 2026-09-17 12:00 UTC · added ~~removed~~

By mid-2026, Italy’s banking network had shrunk by 36.7% since 2015, with over 11,000 branches closed. The total number of outlets fell from 30,258 in 2015 to approximately 19,016 by the first half of 2026. This decline has left 3,456 municipalities (roughly 44% of the country) without a physical bank, impacting an estimated 4.8 million residents and 310,000 enterprises. Regional disparities are widening. Calabria remains the most affected region, with 74.5% of its communes lacking a branch. Piedmont also faces a crisis, with 65.8% of towns unserved. In the Marche region, branch counts fell by 25.9% between 2020 and 2025, leaving 31.5% of municipalities without a branch. In the province of Fermo, 19 municipalities lack both branches and ATMs, with only Amandola maintaining an active branch in the High Appennines area. In the province of Macerata, the decline has been particularly sharp; data from the Bank of Italy shows branches fell from 125 at the end of 2024 to 118 by the end of 2025, a 5.6% annual decrease that exceeds the 4.3% decline recorded across the broader Marche region. In the Piceno area of Marche, 10 out of 33 municipalities—including Castorano, Cossignano, and Montemonaco—lack any bank branch. This trend disproportionately affects towns with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, where nine out of ten are without local banking services, impacting small businesses, the elderly, and local social cohesion. In Umbria, one-third of municipalities lack banking services. Approximately 53,000 residents and 3,400 businesses in Umbria live in unserved municipalities, a 10% increase over the previous year. To combat this, the Umbria Region, Anci Umbria, and several banking trade unions—including Fabi, First-Cisl, Fisac-Cgil, Uilca, and Unisin—signed a four-year memorandum of understanding to protect credit access and safeguard employment. The trend is driven by bank mergers, digitalization, and cost-cutting. ~~The CNA and other bodies warn that digital channels cannot replace physical presence for the elderly and small firms, cautioning that desertification may accelerate the depopulation of rural areas.~~

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