“Blank mockery”
Bank branches are dying out
By Leon Berent
November 8, 2023, 4:09 p.m
Postbank customers are annoyed by poor payment transactions and service. The parent company Deutsche Bank still wants to reduce the number of employees at the subsidiary and close branches.
Postbank customers have been complaining for months: standing orders are not being executed, the service is not working, and no one answers the bank’s helpline. According to consumer advice centers, 1,700 customer complaints were received about Postbank and the construction finance provider DSL-Bank from the beginning of the year to September – both companies are subsidiaries of Deutsche Bank. The reason for the problems is said to be the conversion of IT systems.
Now you might think that the financial group would respond to the crisis with a major service offensive, for example by sending more employees to the branches. But Deutsche Bank is taking a different approach: it wants to close half of all Postbank branches. “Blank mockery” – that’s how the consumer advice centers comment.
It’s a trend that has been going on for years: in 2022, the total number of branches fell by 1,266 to 20,446. Ten years earlier there were almost twice as many. The first reason for the large number of branches dying is obvious: due to online and mobile banking, fewer and fewer customers come to a branch. However, the banks themselves do not want to counteract this trend. Because everyone who carries out their payment transactions from their couch at home reduces the costs for staff and rent. One of the most important metrics in German finance by which employees are measured is the online quota. So the number of customers who are served purely digitally.
If the banks have their way, even the less internet-savvy, mostly older Germans will have to get used to online banking. A survey by The Economist among 305 bank managers worldwide showed as early as 2021: 65 percent of those surveyed believe that the branch model will be “dead” by 2026.
According to the Bundesbank, the shrinking process can be seen in all banking sectors. The downsizing at the major banks last year at fas eight percent, the number of branches fell to 3,719 branches. At the same time, the branch network of the regional banks shrank to 954 branches. The savings banks also closed 441 branches and the cooperative banks closed 416. According to the Bundesbank, the total number of credit institutions in Germany fell by 61 to 1,458 financial institutions last year, mainly due to mergers of cooperative institutions.