Belgians are increasingly shunning visits to the bank in favour of online banking, a survey commissioned by Febelfin reveals. While 92% of respondents use online banking services, only 43% actually go to the bank more than once per year.
Their findings also revealed that only four in ten Belgians make at least one appointment per year with their bank. Of these, 5% are for routine matters such as transfers and payments. Those visiting branches do so mainly for investment advice.
By contrast, online banking is becoming increasingly popular, with 89% of Belgians using computers for personal finance and 82% using smartphone apps. In total, 15 million users in Belgium now use computers to make payments, with 11.5 million paying on their phones.
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This preference for digital has led to a decrease in the number of bank branches in the country. According to Febelfin's findings, 219 had closed their doors in 2022, which accounts for 5.7% of all Belgian banking agencies. These figures also fall in line with the decade-long decrease in bank branches, with at least one of them closing per day in 2021.
However, the findings highlight that Belgium still has more banks than the European average, with 378 branches per million inhabitants compared to the European average of 318.
