Banks – Hanover – More and more bank branches are closing: Low demand – economy
Banks – Hanover:More and more bank branches are closing: low demand
Directly from the dpa news channel
Göttingen (dpa / lni) – Banks in Lower Saxony are increasingly thinning out their branch network. According to a spokeswoman, the Lower Saxony savings banks have closed a total of 89 branches since the end of 2019. According to their own count, the Volksbank and Raiffeisenbanken counted as many as 142 between the end of 2017 and the end of 2020. The Volksbanks in the Weser-Ems region were not taken into account.
The credit institutions cite the changed behavior of bank customers as reasons. The demand for digital offers continues to increase, said the spokesman for the Lower Saxony savings bank association, Michael Schier. “This is how our customers can quickly use the Sparkasse app every day.” At the same time, they come to the bank branches less and less.
According to a survey by the Association of German Banks, 54 percent of them never or less than once a month visit their branch this year. 75 percent never seek personal contact at the counter, or less than once a month. At the same time, the share of daily use of online or mobile banking increased from 2 percent in May 2018 to 13 percent in August 2021.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 211213-99-361152 / 2