2023-08-05 09:30:32
Last year, Belgian banks again cut more than 10% of cash withdrawal points. ING comes first with a network reduced by half.
The disappearance of ATMs is politically sensitive. To allow citizens to continue to withdraw money in their district/commune, the federal government concluded an agreement with the financial sector in March, intended to maintain the number of ATMs. Both parties agreed that there should be at least one distributor in each municipality by 2025.
The Cash Points, that is to say the automatic distributors set up by four large banks (united in the Batopin group), are supposed to allow the achievement of this objective. But, compared to last summer, fewer than 200 of these generic pick-up points have been installed, while, at the same time, banks are removing their own ATMs at a faster pace.
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Taken all together, these ATMs are therefore still less numerous (- 376 withdrawal points in one year). At the end of July this year, there were only 3,049 places including at least one pick-up point, while there were still more than 3,400 last summer, a drop of no less than 10%.
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ING network reduced by half
It is above all the four big banks which continue to reduce the number of their ATMs. Belfius, KBC, BNP Paribas Fortis and ING have wiped off the map more than 500 places served by an ATM in their name. This represents a dramatic drop of just under 30% in one year.
ING now offers its customers fewer withdrawal points than smaller banks.
ING has been the most radical: compared to last summer, its network has shrunk by more than half, with a marked acceleration in cuts over the past six months. With 154 locations – including a total of 432 ATMs – ING now offers its customers fewer withdrawal points than smaller banks such as Argenta, Crelan or AXA. The number of deletions in small banks remains limited. Bpost now has the largest network after KBC.
Many municipalities without distributors
Today, the principle of “one municipality, one distributor” is therefore far from being a reality. In 24 municipalities, including 17 in Wallonia, there is no ATM. In 122 municipalities, the four major banks are absent. At the level of the smaller entities, the villages (before the merger of the communes), the banking desert is even more flagrant. Thus, in Flanders, more than half of these small towns no longer have an ATM.
In addition, some municipal administrations are trying to remedy the banks’ refusal through certain initiatives. This is particularly the case of Rixensart, where, despite a petition signed by 4,000 people, the big banks did not want to reverse their decision to no longer put an ATM in the city center. The municipal college launched a service concession, won by a Swedish company, for the installation of an ATM, at the expense of the municipality.
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The number of agencies is also decreasing
The number of bank branches is also down compared to last summer. Of the 4,207 branches still open exactly one year ago, there are 3,862 left, i.e. a drop of more than 8%. Only bpost’s branch network has not decreased.
ING cut almost half of its branches still operational during the summer of 2022. Today, ING is content with just over 200 bank branches in 182 municipalities.
BNP Paribas Fortis has also considerably reduced its network, closing one out of eight bank branches. Today, the bank still has 318.
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