The number of atms decreased, but the impact is marginal on the accessibility of such machines.
© CIC
A report recently published by the Bank of France reported a further decrease in the number of atms in the country. In 2019, the trend is further strengthened with a drop of 4.1% in the number of these machines. There were more than 50 316 at the end of the year, compared with 52 451 a year earlier. This decline is even more marked over the period 2015-2018, where France has recorded a net decline of 1.5% of its fleet of ATMS.
That said, the Banque de France and Bercy are not worried about this development. They welcome these figures which confirm ” to maintain a very good accessibility of the species on the territory, through the atm network and points of distribution of species in private “.
A real drop but a marginal impact
In fact, the decrease in the number of distributors has been focused on communes of the heavily populated. In the end, the territorial network of ATMS has remained almost unchanged, and this evolution has had only a ” marginal impact on accessibility “ to the latter.
In detail, the number of municipalities equipped with at least one distributor is down 0.2% over the period. These are always 99% of the French, who have a point of withdrawal in their city, while 31 000 of them have lost their access in 2019. It should be noted that the municipalities with less than 500 inhabitants are the only ones to see the number of ATMS increased from 182 to 187 machines in 2019.
© Banque de France
The private distribution channel increase
If the atm is traditional has seen better days, the access points, so-called “private” have the wind in their sails. These distribution services reserved to the customers of a specific bank posted an increase of 10.1% over the year 2019, rising from 23 202 25 536 points over the year. Among them, we can cite the network of 5 500 tobacconists account the Nickel, the network of Points green of Credit Agricole, or the post offices of the La Banque Postale group.
The chief executive officer of Crédit Agricole de l’anjou et du Maine, Christopher Christmas, sees these alternative networks as ” a means of contributing to the attractiveness of the local businesses while strengthening the social bond “. Mary Degrand-Guillaud, the delegate director of account Nickel explained to us that it was an opportunity for tobacconists to host a point-Nickel, which represents an ” additional source of income “ through a commission levied on each transaction.
To compensate for the decline in the number of distributors, the small communes are not afraid to be creative. This is the case of Locmaria-Plouzané, a small village of 5 000 inhabitants in Brittany, which has sealed a partnership with another provider of funds to install a new distributor in the city centre. A way for it to continue to provide a point of withdrawal of its inhabitants, while only one agency (Credit Mutuel de Bretagne) was closing its doors.
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The behaviors that are causing the decline
If the new reduction of the number of controllers is not a concern, it illustrates a reality in France. The Bank of France justifies a part of this evolution by the acceleration of the closure of the number of bank branches.
Between BNP Paribas, Société Générale and the Crédit Mutuel banks historical must organize to deal with the rise of online banks, for which the model is based exclusively on a digital interface. If Orange Bank has developed a network of a few tens of distributors physical through France, Hello bank! and others rely on existing networks to offer a retirement solution to their customers.
In addition, the relationship of the French with money is experiencing a profound change in the past few years. The value of the transactions carried out with tickets has dropped from 13.2% between 2012 and 2019, with a strong acceleration in the last two years. The health crisis, should further strengthen this trend, and contribute to the height of the electronic payment.
