2023-11-18 19:27:14
On several boulevards in Casablanca, you can see the empty offices of old abandoned bank branches. In figures, in 2022, nearly 189 agencies will have closed. Decryption!
Even if for many the Covid crisis has increased the use of online banking, this crisis alone does not explain why the number of bank branches in certain regions of the world has continued to decline in recent years. “Over the period 2016-2020, the size of the network in France has, in fact, decreased by 13.4%,” reveals a study by the firm Sia Partners. In Belgium, for example, the number of bank branches fell by almost 9%, to 4,285. Figures from the sector federation Febelfin showed that the decline began well before the Covid crisis. According to the federation, during the period 2010-2019, four out of ten bank branches had already disappeared.
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Furthermore, we must also look for the challenges of this shift in the digital revolution initiated in recent years by banks. “The heavy digital investments of large banks are now generating savings,” concludes Expert Deloitte in a recent European study. “Banks that have a good application and an efficient internet platform are better able to convince their customers to take the step towards digital services. They can thus close agencies more quickly and save on real estate and staff working in agencies,” explain Deloitte experts. Still according to Deloitte, 42% of banking customers use their bank’s application in 2022, compared to 34% in 2021, while the agency’s use is down 12 points over the same period. In Morocco, the phenomenon is also taking up more space, perhaps to a lesser extent, in the banking landscape.
189 agencies closed in 2022!
The Moroccan banking network for several years now has continuously recorded a shrinkage in the face of the invasion of digital in the customer journey and the orientation of banks to further optimize their network to make it more profitable. Moroccan banks have, in fact, shed 189 branches and opened only 38 new entities in 2022. This brings the total number of active banking branches to 5,914, including 5,715 from conventional banks, 9 from offshore banks and 190 of participatory banks, indicates Bank Al-Maghrib in a new publication on banking establishment in 2022.
By bank, last year there were 52 closures at Attijariwafa bank, 38 at Banque Populaire, 26 at Bank of Africa, 21 at BMCI, 21 at Société Générale Maroc, 19 at Crédit du Maroc, 11 at Al Barid Bank and one at CIH. “The advent of digital in banking services, the rise of multichannel (e-banking, m-banking, direct banking) driven by significant investments made by local banks to completely digitalize the customer journey, and the “evolution of uses partly explains this trend towards the closure of agencies”, confides Economist Mehdi Lahlou to us. Regarding the question of human capital, Lahlou warns of the fact that when we arrive at the same conclusion with the eruption of technology in economic activity, some adapt and others are left behind.
The agency and the advisor, the end of a model?
In a bank-customer relationship barometer published in 2021, the Deloitte expert demonstrates how today Generation Z influences the uses of banks. More than other age groups, they expect it to offer them extra-banking services: help to manage documents (58%) and administrative procedures (56%), to find a notary (57%) or a lawyer (54%), to secure their purchases on the internet (75%) or their accommodation (56%), to find a job (51%)…
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They are less resistant to the idea of letting their bank exploit their personal data. 44% of 15-24 year olds (compared to 29% of all French people) are ready to authorize the sharing of their statement with third parties to benefit from a completely free bank account; 41% (compared to 22%) to benefit from price advantages and personalized promotions. According to one of our sources at Société Générale Maroc, today we have a fairly specific clientele who prefer the bank’s digital experience. Still according to her, hundreds of millions of dirhams are invested in platforms in order to facilitate the customer experience in their use. On the subject of jobs, the source reassures that the majority of human resources are redeployed to other, more spacious branches where there is still a need for direct banking.
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