711 bank branches closed in France in 2025, reducing the network to 35,711 branches, compared with 36,422 in 2024. This contraction is about more than redistributing customers—it also redistributes risk. Fewer branches mean fewer staff on site, more remote advisors and more meetings outside the branch, requiring security to extend beyond the building itself.
This shift is also reflected in workplace violence statistics. The French Banking Federation (FBF) recorded 4,932 incidents involving employees working in banking institutions in 2024. While the overall figure remained relatively stable, physical assaults increased, and the data does not include mutual banking networks.
Fewer branches and more workplace violence are reshaping bank security. This article explains why security must now extend beyond the branch, what risks banks face today, and how complementary solutions can address them without significantly increasing costs.
Why Bank Branch Security Has Become a Strategic Challenge
The digital transformation of banking has fundamentally changed how customers interact with their banks. According to the 2022 IFOP–FBF study:
- More than one in four French people no longer visit their branch.
- Nine out of ten customers manage their accounts through mobile banking applications.
As a result, many branches now operate with a single advisor instead of several colleagues working together. Remote meetings via phone, video conferencing and secure messaging have become commonplace, moving part of customer interactions beyond the branch.
With fewer colleagues nearby, fewer witnesses and reduced on-site presence, employees face greater individual exposure. Modern bank security can no longer rely solely on building protection or isolated systems.
What Risks Do Banks Face Today?
Today’s banking environment involves three main categories of risk, each requiring different responses.
1. Workplace Incivility and Daily Aggression
Threats, verbal abuse and aggressive behavior at service counters or during customer meetings remain frequent. These incidents are often underreported but have a significant impact on employees’ mental health and well-being.
2. Intrusions and Targeted Attacks
Criminals increasingly target ATMs, vaults and cash handling areas, leading to financial losses, business disruption and equipment replacement costs.
3. Risks Beyond the Branch
Remote advisors and employees meeting customers outside the office face entirely new threats. A dissatisfied customer can become aggressive, or an advisor may be pressured into revealing confidential banking information or authorizing fraudulent transactions without immediate support.
The Triple Challenge for Bank Security Managers
To address these threats, security managers must balance three priorities:
- Protect employees, whether they work at reception, in customer advisory roles or at headquarters.
- Secure sensitive areas, including vaults, ATMs and cash-processing facilities.
- Maintain a smooth customer experience while strengthening protection.
Achieving better security without dramatically increasing costs requires focusing investments on the most critical risks.
How Azursoft Addresses These Three Challenges
An effective security strategy requires more than a single technology. Azursoft has developed a comprehensive approach built around three complementary timeframes: installation, immediate response and long-term prevention.
At the facility level, Actives, Azursoft’s security hypervisor, centralizes intrusion detection, access control, video surveillance and technical building systems.
A single operator can immediately view alarms, display video feeds, verify incidents and control installed equipment regardless of the manufacturer.
When an advisor works remotely or meets customers outside the branch, they are no longer protected by the branch’s security infrastructure.
This is precisely why Azursoft developed Click#SOS: a discreet emergency alert solution that automatically routes alarms to qualified monitoring operators, ensuring immediate assistance wherever employees are working.
Incivility is rarely an isolated event. Repeated incidents accumulate over time and gradually affect employees exposed to the public.
French labor regulations also require employers to proactively prevent occupational risks rather than simply reacting after each incident.
For this reason, several national banking institutions have adopted VIGI-Tools, integrated with the Alfatéa HSE software, to monitor workplace incidents over time.
Each reported incident contributes to a structured action plan, transforming isolated events into measurable prevention strategies that improve employee safety over the long term.
Azursoft at ADITEL Forum 2026
Azursoft will participate in the 35th ADITEL Forum, taking place on September 17–18, 2026, at the Centre de Congrès de l’Aube in Troyes.
The event theme—“Threats to Banks 2026–2030”—perfectly reflects the challenges discussed in this article.
The program includes a conference on threat mapping and a roundtable bringing together representatives from UMS, CAMCA, CNPP and leading banking institutions to discuss practical responses to the sector’s evolving security challenges.