Postbank is massively thinning out its network of branches. At some locations, customers will soon have to travel long distances.
Postbank is radically restructuring its branch network. By 2026, the company will close a total of 230 branches across Germany. The process is not transparent. Postbank has not published an overview of which branches are to be closed. In many cases, regional media have already reported which branches of the Deutsche Bank subsidiary will be closed. The end is already certain for 103 branches, the Handelsblatt has found out and confirmed by the bank.
In Berlin and Brandenburg, Postbank wants to close almost every second of its 55 branches. In Hamburg, nine of the 25 branches are affected. In Düsseldorf, three of six branches are closing.
Postbank is withdrawing completely from some cities. This applies to Grevenbroich and Solingen in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as Dingolfing and Plattling in Bavaria.
The closures mean that branches are a long way away for some customers. Because the institute in Lindau on Lake Constance is closing, customers have to drive more than 20 kilometers to Friedrichshafen or Wangen in Allgäu. Customers from Schwedt in Brandenburg have a 50-kilometer journey ahead of them to get to the nearest branches in Pasewalk or Biesenthal.
The timetable for the closures is flexible. The branch in Hanover was actually supposed to close next year. But after two ATM explosions, the institute gave up this year. In Frankfurt, a branch closed six weeks before the deadline for the same reason.
The aim of the downsizing was agreed in the most recent collective agreement. At least 320 branches are to remain. That is 20 more than the 300 branches originally planned. The Verdi union was able to prevail in the negotiations. The closures will result in a reduction of around 1,000 jobs, but mostly in areas far removed from customers.
“All customer advisors will continue to be employed in other branches or in one of the eleven regional advisory centers that we are setting up for video and telephone advice,” a spokesperson told Handelsblatt. Since redundancies are ruled out until 2027, the reduction will be socially acceptable, through deployment in other areas of the bank or through measures such as partial retirement or severance payments.
According to the bank, the reason for the restructuring is the change in customer behavior towards online banking. Only one in four Postbank customers still visits a branch, said Deutsche Bank's private customer manager, Claudio de Sanctis, to Handelsblatt
