In the first half of this year, Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD), BCP, BPI, Santander Totta and Novo Banco lost 240 branches in Portugal compared to the same period in 2020.

At the end of June last year, the banks together had 2,343 branches, seeing that number reduced in a year to 2,103.

Halfway through this year, BPI had 386 branches, CGD had 543, Santander Totta had 368, Novo Banco had 348 and BCP had 458.

As for employees, the reduction was 1,474 people in the five largest banks operating in Portugal.

At the end of June 2020, the five largest institutions had a total of 29,701 employees, and a year later this number fell to 28,227, confirming the trend of recent years.

At the end of the first half of the year, in Portugal, CGD had 6,515 employees, Santander Totta had 5,765, BCP had 6,937, BPI had 4,562 and Novo Banco had 4,448.

The five main banks operating in Portugal recorded aggregate profits of 708.4 million Euros in the first half, with BCP being the smallest contributor.