Over 5,000 bank branches have been permanently closed in the last five years, accounting for more than 20% of the total, from 25,000 to 20,000, and resulting in a nearly 6% loss in personnel, or slightly over 16,000, from 278,000 to 262,000. This is the balance of the so-called banking desertification process over the last five years, according to a report by Fisac Cgil's Studies & Research Office, a contraction that has also been confirmed for 2023, with branches down -3.9% over 2022 for a loss of 825 units and employees down -0.8% for 2,156 units. According to a Fisac estimate based on Bankitalia statistics, Italian banks and foreign bank branches in Italy would have 20,161 active branches by the end of 2023. In terms of size, larger banks accounted for 54% (10,787). In contrast, when it comes to the institutional group, SpA banks owned 76% (15,294) of the branches taken over as of December 31 of last year.