30% less since 2005
More and more bank branches are closing
The number of bank branches has fallen sharply in recent years. Whereas 12 years ago there were over 5,100 branches of Raiffeisen, Bank Austria, Erste & Co. in Austria, today there are just over 3,500. At the same time, however, fees have risen sharply, criticizes the trade union-affiliated Momentum Institute.
Specifically, the number of branches in Austria has fallen by 1567 locations, or around 30 percent, since 2012, when the number peaked. The Raiffeisen sector has closed the most branches since 2005 with 729 branches. This corresponds to almost a third of the Raiba branch network. The Volksbanks (-316), which eliminated more than half of their branches after the near bankruptcy of their leading institution ÖVAG, closed the second largest number of branches. Erste Bank and Sparkassen (-303) have also thinned out their network.
"The journey to the bank is much longer for many customers. The disappearance of banks is also contributing to the death of town centers in rural areas or to bankless zones on the outskirts," says Oliver Picek from Momentum Institute.
At the same time, fees have successively climbed. Since 2005, there has been an average increase of around 50 percent across all banking services. However, the costs for account management, custody accounts etc. made the biggest leap between 2021 and 2023. In these two years, fees rose by a whopping 23%, driven by high inflation. "The banks earn money from higher interest payments from their customers anyway. Nevertheless, they have also increased fees without offering a better service," says Picek.
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