European banks closed over 9000 branches last year and shed 50,000 staff as customer defections to online and mobile channels surged, according to data from the European Banking Federation.
The overview shows that banks have continued to scale back their physical presence across Europe as the importance of widespread bank branch networks is reduced.
The number of bank branches in the EU declined to 189.270 in 2016, a dip of 4.6% on the previous year. The figures show an upward curve from 2015, when just three percent of the Bloc's branches were lost.
Looking across a wider timescale, European banks have shuttered more than 48,000 branches since 2008, a contraction of 20.4%.
Staff numbers also slipped, falling to 2.80 million last year from 2.85 million a year earlier. This compares to 3.26 million in 2008.