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LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Banks cut 5,500 branches acrossthe European Union last year, 2.5 percent of the total, leavingthe region with 20,000 fewer outlets than it had when thefinancial industry was plunged into crisis in 2008.
Last year's cuts come after 7,200 branches were axed in2011, according to data analysed by Reuters from EuropeanCentral Bank statistics.
Banks across Europe have been closing branches in a bid totrim operating costs and improve their battered earnings.Consumer take-up of online and telephone banking services hasaccelerated the trend.
The data show EU banks cut 8 percent of branches inaggregate in the four years to the end of 2012, leaving 218,687branches, or one for every 2,300 people.
Last year's sharpest cuts were largely contained to theembattled periphery.
Crisis-stricken Greece saw one of the biggest contractionsin 2012, shedding 5.7 percent of its outlets, as mergers oflocal banks led to 219 branch closures. The trend is expected tocontinue into 2013 as Piraeus shuts some of the 312branches it snapped up from stricken Cypriot lenders in March.
Spain, where massive loan losses have put banks under fiercepressure to cut costs, lost 4.9 percent, or 1,963, of itsbranches in 2012.
Ireland's branch network contracted by 3.3 percent and isexpected to shrink again in 2013, while Italy's network was 3.1percent smaller by the end of the year.
Branch numbers were on the rise in some eastern Europeancountries including Poland (up 4 percent), the Czech Republic(up 2.3 percent) and Lithuania (up 1.8 percent).
In Britain, the ECB data showed the number of branchesremained little changed at 11,870.
The ECB gathers data on lenders' branch networks across theEU, and the data Reuters reviewed included the 27 EU memberstates at the end of 2012. Croatia has since become the 28thmember. ECB data can differ from statistics from nationalbanking groups, depending on criteria for inclusion.
