ARCHIVED - 1.3 million people in Spain have little or no access to cash withdrawals
The Covid pandemic has accelerated the disappearance of banks and cashpoints in Spain
A report published this week by the Banco de España warns that the acceleration during the pandemic of the transition from cash purchasing to the use of debit and credit cards is leading to a sharp increase in the number of people in Spain who no longer have easy access to cash, describing them as “vulnerable” in terms of “cash accessibility”.
A recent merger has led to over 6,000 employees of La Caixa bank being made redundant and numerous offices closing, and this is just one more symptom of the changes in the banking sector as banks struggle to remain profitable in times of extremely low interest rates. With more and more people now banking online and using credit and debit cards for their daily shopping, costs are being cut through the closure of local branches, making it increasingly difficult for those in rural communities to take out the cash they need for simple transaction such as buying a cup of coffee.
Last year it was reported that cashpoint use fell by 31 per cent across Spain as the pandemic led to wariness over the handling of coins and notes.
The Banco de España reports that although vulnerability to cash inaccessibility is relatively low in most of Spain, there are still “approximately 1.3 million people” who could be considered vulnerable, accounting for around 3 per cent of the population. This figure includes 340,000 people living in municipalities with a high level of vulnerability, with an average distance to the nearest cashpoint or bank branch of 9.4 kilometres, and most of these communities include a high proportion of over-60s for whom travel can be a great inconvenience.
Many of these are in tiny villages of under 400 people in the provinces of León, Zamora and Salamanca, the study finds.
As society evolves, this is likely to become a problem for more and more people. The CCOO trades union estimates that a further 20,000 people will be made redundant in the banking sector over the next 12 months as banks slim down in order to increase profitability, while the average number of inhabitants per bank branch is expected to rise by 18 per cent to 2,400.
The offices of Correos, the Spanish postal service, are to offer the services of traffic authorities, Hacienda and banks in some locations, but they will not be able to cater for all communities in all of these ways, especially in depopulated rural areas.
Since 2008 the number of operative bank branches in Spain has already fallen by 50 per cent, while cashpoint figures have dropped by around 20 per cent. At the end of last year the figures stood at 22,209 branches and 49,481 ATMs, and a further 1,800 branches are expected to disappear by the end of 2021. On the other hand, there are now around 6,000 independent cashpoints run by companies such as Euronet, Euro Automatic Cash and Cardtronics, most of them subsidized by local councils keen to ensure that residents still have easy access to cash withdrawals.
Another possible partial solution would be the introduction of cashback or cash-in-shop schemes, but these have not caught on in Spain and they would not provide the same guarantee of availability as banks and cashpoints.