Millennials show French banks they're falling behind in branch cuts

Paris

JEAN-BAPTISTE Esmenjaud, 26, hasn't set foot in his bank in over five years.

"La Banque Postale lets me do everything online, and I speak over the phone once a year with an adviser," said the biology student, a decade-long customer of the state- backed bank whose 9,000-plus French branches give it one of Europe's biggest such networks. "I've been moving a lot and I took a year off to travel around the world. For me, this is the only way to bank."