There were about 200,000 branches of domestic credit institutions at the end of 2013, confirming a downward trend in most EU countries, new data shows. However, Malta is bucking this trend, with more branches and more employees.

The European Central Bank published a comprehensive dataset of annual structural financial indicators for the banking sector in the EU.

It shows that the number of branches fell from 217,699 to 198,744, with employment dropping from 3.03 million to 2.93 million.

In Malta, however, the number of branches, which had dropped from 113 to 107 between 2010 and 2011, rose again to 110. And the number of employees, down to 3,836 in 2009 has now reached 4,197.

The data also indicate that the degree of concentration and the share of foreign-controlled institutions continue to vary significantly across national banking markets.

The share of total assets of the five largest credit institutions ranged at national level from a minimum of 31 per cent to a maximum of 94 per cent. In Malta, the share stood at 76.5 per cent, up from 74.4 in 2012.

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