Banks in Europe, North America and Australia have increased their revenues by 4 percent over the past year.

In Germany, however, the banking business is not very lucrative.

These are findings from the “Retail Banking Monitor 2022” by the strategy consultancy from PwC.

Banks in Switzerland earn best from their customers.

The average profit per customer amounts to 528 euros, partly driven by exchange rate effects in the comparative presentation in euros.

Australia and Belgium follow in second and third place with 290 and 281 euros, respectively, on average per year.

According to the study, for which the consultants examined the situation of financial institutions at 50 retail banks in Europe, North America and Australia with a total of 690 million customers,

Germany is only in 10th place and has even slipped down one place compared to the previous year.

Despite a slight increase in the average turnover from 172 to 180 euros per customer, banking is only less lucrative in the USA with 149 euros and in Great Britain with 135 euros per customer.

Archibald Preuschat

Editor in Business

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According to the annual study, two thirds of the banks surveyed have recorded increasing operating income per customer.

In part, the location was decisive for the development of sales: Banks in countries with less strict or shorter Covid-19 protective measures - here the consultants name Switzerland as an example - grew more strongly than their competitors last year.

In some cases, institutions may have benefited from the fact that consumer activity in the respective countries and regions started earlier, according to the strategy consultants at PwC.

They recommend the banks to refrain from the branch.

Almost two-thirds of customers would only visit them anyway to use self-service machines.

In the international study, the number of customer meetings per consultant is estimated at two to three a day.

In Germany, at least for the moment, the situation is different.

"Currently, there is still a high proportion of service in the bank branches, especially when serving customers who do not yet use mobile or online banking," says Andreas Pratz, author of the study and partner at the German strategy consultancy of PwC Germany.

In the future, however, Pratz expects that this proportion will decrease and that bank advisors will serve less "passenger customers" and instead approach customers proactively,

who have already informed themselves online about various offers such as construction financing.

Customers should then be advised in their local branch.

The strategy consultants at PwC call the model the “outbound model”.

Meanwhile, the rating agency S&P sees higher risks for the German banks, which stem from the second-round effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and longer interruptions in global supply chains.

As a reason, the credit watchers call “the substantial dependence on Russian natural gas”.

In a scenario in which gas supplies from Russia dry up completely, S&P assumes there will be a shock effect that could also affect the quality of German banks' loan books in the corporate customer segment.

At the same time, S&P also emphasizes that this scenario is not what it expected.

"We believe that the German economy has a proven ability to absorb major economic and financial shocks," the study says.