Banking, more than 3,300 young people to be hired by the beginning of 2026

In the first part of 2026 there will be more than 3,300 banker hirings. While it is true that the credit sector has experienced a significant employment contraction in recent years - always managed with voluntary and incentivised exits and early retirements with the Solidarity Fund borne by the banks and without ever making a redundancy - it is also true that the latest trade union agreements of some large groups have raised the replacement rate between exits and entries and give an important signal on the chapter of new to good employment. Especially at a time when the Abi national collective labour agreement is coming to an end (end of March) and some important industrial plans are coming, such as Intesa Sanpaolo's planned for February.

If in the past the unwritten practice between banks and unions was one new recruit for every two exits, today the replacement rate has even exceeded 100%, that is, one new recruit for every exit, as happened with the last agreement at UniCredit, or 80% as happened at Bper. To arrive at our overall number, as reconstructed by Fisac CGIL, we need to go back over the second-level union agreements signed at the end of the year by all the unions (Fabi, First, Fisac, Uilca and Unisin). The latest in order of time is that of Unicredit, which provides for 436 hirings compared to 484 exits in the three-year period 2026-2028 and fully implements the Abi Protocol in support of women victims of violence, which will allow 58 women and sons and daughters of women victims of feminicide to be hired over the next three years, effectively increasing the employment perimeter and the replacement rate between retirees and new hires, bringing the total number of new hires to 494 and thus exceeding the one-to-one ratio in the mechanism of exits and hires.

If there is a common thread running through all the latest agreements, it concerns the acceptance of the Abi protocol in support of victims of gender violence and feminicide. On Christmas Eve, Intesa Sanpaolo and the trade unions signed the first part of the second-level collective agreement, which, in addition to bringing together supplementary pensions, work-life balance, inclusion and an innovative agreement on parenthood, defined a new perimeter of voluntary retirements with a related plan for new hires, in the proportions of one permanent employee for every two exits, in addition to a part-time quota that would bring 50 permanent and 37.5 part-time hires for every 100 exits. The Intesa Sanpaolo agreement integrates and expands voluntary exit opportunities, defining a new window for the Solidarity Fund and at the same time guaranteeing new hires with a commitment to reach 1,500 hires (out of the 3,500 envisaged by the 2024 protocol) by March 2026. To these is added the 2% quota in line with the ABI protocol against gender violence and feminicide.

What happened in the two large groups is also reflected in the medium-sized ones and represents an important signal in view of what will happen with the expiry of the last collective labour agreement, which was renewed in November 2023 and which introduced a 15% pay increase for the average figure (EUR 435 in total), accompanied by the indirect increase of the reduction in working hours to 37 hours per week. December also saw the arrival of the Bper agreement which, in addition to renewing a part of the supplementary contract relating to career paths, following the merger with Popolare di Sondrio, provided for 800 exits and 650 recruitments and stabilisations, with a replacement rate of over 80%. Again, at least 2 per cent of the exits were reserved for women victims of gender-based violence included in the protection pathways or for sons and daughters of victims of feminicide.

In Credem, the renewal of the second-level integrative contract, with advances on company welfare and protection, also brought a commitment to continue on the 2025 trend in which 380 hires were made (up 15% on the year before). At the end of November, the agreement on the generational turnover of the Banco Bpm group provided for up to 120 voluntary departures and 90 new hires in 2026 and reserved an additional 2% for women victims of violence. Crédit Agricole Italia instead signed an agreement for 490 hirings in three years and the stabilisation of a further 100 workers already present to compensate for the voluntary exit of 500 workers.