2023-05-02 10:10:26
Nearly 6 out of 10 Belgians (57%) never or less than once a year go to a bank branch, according to an online survey commissioned by the Belgian Financial Sector Federation (Febelfin) and published on Tuesday . Conversely, online banking services are increasingly popular: only 8% of respondents say they do not use them.
This digital expansion leads to a decrease in the number of bank branches in Belgium. Last year, 219 of them (5.7%) closed their doors, leaving a total of 3,590 agencies in the territory. A figure that has been more than halved in 10 years. Febelfin specifies however that Belgium still has a number of bank branches per million inhabitants higher than the European average (378 against 318).
Only 40% of respondents make at least one appointment a year with their bank and few do so for routine matters such as transfers and payments (5%). People visiting branches do so primarily for investment advice.
Conversely, online banking services are increasingly popular. In 2022, online PC banking subscriptions increased by half a million, surpassing the 15 million mark, and mobile banking subscriptions increased by 1.03 million to reach 11.5 million. of users. The PC and the smartphone remain the most used channels with 89 and 82% respectively.
This online survey was carried out by iVOX at the request of Feblefin between 5 and 9 December 2022 among 1,000 representative Belgians in terms of language, gender, age and diploma. The margin of error is 3.02%.
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