LAWN. The Monte dei Paschi branch in Piazza Mercatale disappeared in two months, with the employees learning of the closure first from customers than from the property. And in October Vernio will lose its last bank branch, as also denounced by the mayor Maria Lucarini, who has launched a signature collection to prevent this. It’s called banking desertification: in ten years, half of the bank branches in the Prato area have closed and despite the reassurances on the continuity of services made by banking institutions, the bleeding will continue in the coming months.
Desertification is advancing. In 2013, there were 134 bank branches in Prato. Ten years later, there were exactly half (67), but it is a process that does not seem destined to stop. In October, in addition to the one in Vernio, Banca Intesa would also be planning to close the branch in via Filzi and the one in via Bagatti. And in step with the closure of the branches, the staff is also being reduced. From 1,387 employees employed in the Prato branches in 2015, we have gone to 847 in 2023. “These closures are the result of the reduction of costs by the banking institutions to maximize the shareholders’ profits and are to the detriment of a basic service that must be guaranteed to the population”, says Leonardo Bardi, general secretary of Fisac Cgil Prato and Pistoia. “The closures of Intesa are part of an industrial plan that will end in 2025,” says Leonardo Cacciato, secretary of First Cisl Florence and Prato. “The medium-small branches are closing in favor of the larger ones. It is easy to predict that other institutions will move in a similar way. It must also be said,” he adds, “that in France and Spain there is not such a high number of closures despite the fact that digitalization is much more advanced than in Italy.”
A hardship for businesses and citizens. With its National Observatory on Banking Desertification, First Cisl took stock of the Tuscan situation in March 2024. According to the provincial desertification indicator (lpd), calculated taking into account four factors (municipalities, population, businesses and surface area), the province of Prato is the least desertified in Italy with regard to partial desertification, that is, that which refers to municipalities with only one branch. Only eighth in Tuscany and in thirtieth place in Italy instead with regard to absolute desertification, which as can be understood refers to municipalities without bank branches. «The purpose of the banks is very clear and we have been denouncing it for some time – adds Leonardo Bardi – to drastically reduce the branches on the territory and encourage the digitalization of customers, so that they can carry out basic operations independently. In this way, however, entire portions of territory are left uncovered and a hardship is created for employees, whose workloads increase, and above all for the older segment of the population, who are unable to face this epochal change and are forced to travel miles even just to make a withdrawal”. And there is also an additional concern, which looks to the world of business and credit. “The disappearance of banks also complicates life for companies, which according to the latest studies have greater difficulty in accessing credit – explains Bardi – The further away the management centers are, the more complicated it is to provide credit”.
