The effort to eliminate financial exclusion in medium-sized municipalities with populations over 500 has gained momentum. A practical plan is already yielding early results, as last year saw the installation of ATMs or banking offices in five towns within Alicante province, serving a combined population of 3,645. Yet, in the three remaining municipalities where in-person banking is not yet available, 1,711 residents still face barriers to accessing basic financial services.
In the summer prior, three major banking associations—AEB, CECA, and Unacc—presented a report to the Presidency, led by Joaquín Maudos, a professor of Economic Analysis at the University of Valencia, and the Valencian Institute for Economic Research. The study sought to map the reach of banking services with highly disaggregated municipal data to identify communities lacking face-to-face access. The report highlighted that at the end of 2021, approximately 211,550 people across 243 Spanish municipalities were affected by this gap and proposed a roadmap featuring agreements to place offices, ATMs, financial agents, or Post Offices to bridge those gaps.
To monitor compliance with these plans, Professor Maudos was commissioned again to publish the first quarterly monitoring reports on financial inclusion. Over the course of a year, the number of municipalities with populations over 500 without access to banking services declined from 243 to 164, while the excluded population decreased from 211,550 to 141,992 in absolute terms.
Regionally, the largest absolute reductions occurred in Castilla y León, which saw a decrease of 15,205 people, followed by the Community of Valencia with 13,256 and Catalonia with 12,145. By province, Cantabria recorded 8,056 fewer people without access, Guadalajara 7,367, and Valencia 7,366. The Alicante province ranked eighth in terms of people helped, with a reduction of 3,645 across five municipalities, notably Vall de Gallinera, Vall de Laguar, Ràfol d’Almúnia, Sanet y Negrals, and Lliber.
Despite those gains, work remains. Three Alicante towns, Gaianes, Murla, and Daya Vieja, still have more than 500 residents affected by financial exclusion, collectively totaling 1,711 people.
This is what the map of new rural ATMs in Alicante looks like: 12,000 people leaving “financial marginalization”
Banking employers also plan to extend coverage to smaller towns facing limited banking services, aiming to reach a nationwide population of 445,950 in municipalities with more than 500 residents. In addition to branches and ATMs, the plan includes options such as in-store cash withdrawals and rural postal routes to ensure access in these communities. The final report still stops short of presenting quantified results for these initiatives.
100% of the territory
Reducing financial exclusion is a commitment shared by the banking sector and the Ministry of Economy and Digital Transformation. The current roadmap aims to achieve full territorial coverage, providing a physical access point to banking services even in municipalities that have never had such a facility, with a focus on rural areas.
Municipal plan for 22 small town centers
In line with the sector’s actions, the Generalitat supported a plan to install ATMs in 124 small city centers, including 22 in Alicante province. The initiative was made possible through a widely executed agreement with CaixaBank, enabling new access points in smaller communities and contributing to closer financial service availability for residents.