Number of employees of Italian banking group UniCredit 2022, by category
Physical branches not a necessity
The cause of the decline in the number of employees at UniCredit, as well as in general in the banking sector, is due to a trend that has been going on for the last few years: bank branches are being closed. In fact, the total number of bank branches in Italy in 2022 amounted to less than 21,000, decreasing from 33,600 in 2011. In the specific case of UniCredit, the number of branches decreased from 7,500 in 2014 to 3,175 in 2022.
Leading banks in Italy
Together with Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit dominates the banking sector in Italy. In 2022, UniCredit, headquartered in Milan, ranked second in Italy among the leading banks in terms of market capitalization. Surprisingly enough, in May 2019, the bank announced it decided to shut down its profiles on Facebook and on Instagram due to concerns about the way the social networks handle private data and sensitive information, making UniCredit the first large bank taking such a drastic measure.