Bank branches are no longer profitable, but thousands of employees still work there.

Cascading restructurings are to be expected.

Nicolas Barré takes stock of a current economic issue.

Are bank branches around the corner doomed to become rarer?

Yesterday's announcement of a merger between the Société Générale and Crédit du Nord networks may signal the start of a big bang.

This announcement resonates strongly in the banking world which employs 360,000 people in France, the vast majority of whom are in branch networks.

To put the ideas behind, that's almost double the automotive industry and its 200,000 employees.

However, for years, all the banks have explained that maintaining a network of branches is expensive and that many of them are no longer profitable: people come less, they do almost all their transactions via the Internet, several new banks do not. even exist online and have no hard network.

In short, the bank branch around the corner has an "old world" side.

Yet banks rarely close branches.

They close from time to time, yes, but quietly, it is not too visible, and the workforce reductions are done smoothly, via retirements.

There, clearly, a large bank, Société Générale, for the first time gives the signal for a much larger movement to restructure banking networks.

Its leaders say: "we must change the retail banking model to adapt it to the challenges of the next ten years".

It is therefore all these professions of account manager, sales advisers, directors of agencies, advisers in wealth management that are under pressure.

Société Générale has 1,749 branches across the country, Crédit du Nord, its subsidiary, has 679 and in both networks, we fear the social consequences of the merger.

We imagine that the other major banking networks will watch this carefully.

Yes, but don't forget that the biggest networks in France are mutualists: Crédit Agricole, BPCE and Crédit Mutuel.

Their approach is different.

They absolutely want to keep a dense network, close to people.

They are regional banks, with strong regional roots.

They also have protective social traditions.

The fact remains that digital technology and the fall in interest rates are also weighing on their margins.

Maintaining a solid branch network around street corners is becoming more and more expensive.