Madrid, 8 March (EFECOM).- The number of municipalities with more than 500 inhabitants lacking any type of face-to-face access to banking services fell by 32.5 % over the past year, benefiting a population of close to 70,000 people.
This is the data compiled by Joaquín Maudos, professor of economic analysis at the University of Valencia, who was commissioned to monitor the progress of banks in tackling financial exclusion, and to which EFE has had access.
While 2022 began with 243 municipalities of more than 500 inhabitants (with a total population of 211,550 inhabitants) without a bank branch, ATM or any other means of accessing cash, a year later that number has been reduced by 79 municipalities (with 69,558 inhabitants), leaving 164 municipalities (141,992 inhabitants) that remain in this situation.
A report published last summer by the above-mentioned professor showed that at the end of 2021 some 657,500 people - 1.4 % of the population - living in a total of 3,230 Spanish municipalities did not have face-to-face access to financial services.
A total of 243 municipalities with more than 500 inhabitants were identified as having no face-to-face banking services, where 211,550 inhabitants lived, 0.45% of the national total, and the three banking associations - AEB, CECA and Unacc - publicly undertook the commitment with the government to improve this situation.
The banking associations designed a roadmap to "rescue" this financially excluded population, with access points to banking services in the form of branches, ATMs, financial agents or agreements with post offices. In order to see the degree of compliance with these plans, AEB, CECA and Unacc decided to commission quarterly financial inclusion monitoring reports from Professor Maudos. EFE has had access to the first of these reports, which focuses on municipalities with more than 500 inhabitants.
According to the information provided by the banking associations for this study, in one of the municipalities without banking services, a branch was opened and in 26 other municipalities ATMs were installed by the banks. In the remaining municipalities, access was facilitated through post offices, "ofibuses" or ATMs of non-banking companies.
In absolute terms, the population without face-to-face access to banking services was reduced the most in Castile and Leon (15,205 fewer inhabitants), followed by Valencia (13,256) and Catalonia (12,145). By provinces, of note were the falls in Cantabria (8,056), Guadalajara (7,367), Valencia (7,336) and Palencia (5,483).
