The bank plans to bring cash to municipalities with a population of less than 5,000.

Sectoral initiative, therefore, more ATMs automatic; increase agreements with Correos to use their offices to provide essential financial services (an expanded practice in countries such as Ireland, the UK or Australia and where Santander and some smaller entities are already established in Spain); expand fleet own mobile offices (so-called ‘ofibuses’); increase the number financial intermediaries (person or company acting on its behalf, not belonging to a credit institution); and reach more refund opportunitiesie withdrawing cash at commercial establishments such as gas stations and pharmacies.

These are the outlines of the proposal. self regulation The sector was transferred to the Ministry of Economy but still no agreement reached with the same thing that they can still be subject to variations. In fact, there is the air that the plan will be presented before the holiday as desired. Therefore, one of the unclear aspects is how to decide which unit in each municipality will implement the measures. The idea is to implement the plan as a new plan. protocol extension “strengthening the social commitment” of the industry, which includes a set of measures employers signed a year ago on inclusion and financial education, as well as on workforce, salary, environmental sustainability and digitalisation.

Excluded population

In that document, a Financial Inclusion Observatory to do “access to the map It will be presented this Tuesday, and will be addressed to financial services in rural Spain, commissioned by employers. Joaquin Maudos (Professor of economic analysis at the University of Valencia and deputy director of research at Ivie). We used it to develop geolocation tools if a municipality does not have bank access, to find out how many kilometers from the road and what is the travel time of the nearest access point.

As this paper progresses a month ago, its two main preliminary conclusions are: 3.3% population (1.56 million people, at the end of 2021) population without branches banking, but with some other means of physical access to the most basic services (like ATMs or ‘offices’). on the other hand 1.4% of the population (approximately 665,000 Spaniards) no cash access in your municipality. The greatest effort is planned to be given to this group of municipalities, because in addition to being neglected in most cases middle ages of those living among seven and eight years old to the country as a whole slightly lower income.

shared cost

Vice President of Economics, Nadia Calvinoalready urged the public to take new measures to improve its services to the industry last January. old humans. After a month of negotiations, an initiative package emerged, which employers signed as the first extension of last year’s protocol. It’s about giving now new twist Based in rural Spain.

“It must be said It’s not just banks’ problem., the problem of depopulation is a challenge for everyone. We saw that there was a theme there as well. community services. But the banks are definitely committed to working on this as a top priority so that no customer is left behind, regardless of residence and digital capabilities,” the EEB chief assured. Alejandra KindlanA few days ago.

The industry, yes, wants to share the costs. “Solutions will be sought but shared solutionsbecause the financial sector is an essential service but not public service. They should be combined with public administrations that have to guarantee the public service. Therefore one should public-private cooperation“, argued a few weeks ago, José Luis Martínez Campuzano, spokesperson for the employer in question.