The Ministry of Economy and the banking employers Work has begun on a new package of measures to combat the financial exclusion on the Spain emptied, as various sources involved have confirmed to EL PERIÓDICO. The main objective is to bring basic banking services, especially the possibility of obtaining cash, to the 1.4% of the population who resides in rural municipalities that do not have a bank branch or other types of physical means of access to the financial systemsuch as ATMs or those known as ‘ofibuses’.
The percentage of unattended population is low, but it implies that about 665,000 Spaniards are affected by the highest degree of financial exclusion, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics for the end of 2021. In addition, a 3.3% of the population -1.56 million people- reside in towns no bank branchalthough with some other of the mechanisms deployed by the financial sector to provide physical access to its most basic services.
Both data, to which this newspaper has had access, come from a report that the bosses AEB and CECA (banks and old savings banks, respectively) plan to publish in the coming days, expectedly towards the end of the month. His actor, Joaquin Maudos (professor of economic analysis at the University of Valencia and deputy director of research at the Ivie), made a Preview of it to the associations and the Ministry of Economy a couple of weeks ago, as it is the basis from which both parties plan to design the new plan.
Older, less income
Sources of the department that directs Nadia Calvino They explain that the work is going to focus on the municipalities where this 1.4% of the population resides because, in addition to being more neglected by the banks than the rest, they present in many cases a middle Ages of the inhabitants between seven and eight years old to the country as a whole, as well as a level of slightly lower rent. Although the plan No date or deadlines to be ready, the objective of the ministry is to advance to the highest possible speed.
The initiative, thus, is part of the strategy that has been unfolding Economy in the last year to stop the financial exclusiona growing problem in Spain since the industry restructuring bank started in 2008 due to the previous crisis. At the request of the vice-president, the AEB and the CECA signed in July last year a protocol for “reinforce social commitment” of the sector, with a series of measures in terms of inclusion and financial education, as well as labor, salary, environmental sustainability and digitization. In said document, the creation of a Observatory for Financial Inclusion to draw up a “map of access to financial services in rural Spain”, which is what will be presented in a few days.
Additionally, Calviño publicly urged the sector last January to adopt new measures to improve its service to old people. After a month of negotiations, a package of initiatives emerged that the employers signed as protocol expansion from last year. Now it’s about giving it a new twist focused on the rural spainin some works in which the employers of cooperatives of credit (UNACC) and the Bank of Spain.
public collaboration
The supervisory body, thus, last three reports: a comparison of access to cash in Spain compared to the rest of the countries of the euro zone; an x-ray of the access to the digital banking services in the country and its recent evolution; and a review of the actions at national and international level against financial exclusion. These studies will also serve as the basis for the plan to be negotiated by the ministry and employers.
Economy expects that a new set of commitments will emerge from the work that the bank will return to take on voluntarily. The sector declares itself willing to do so, but asks to share the cost. “Solutions will be sought, but they have to be shared solutions, because the financial sector is an essential service but not a public service. They have to be combined with public administrations, which do have to guarantee public service. There must therefore be a public-private collaboration“, argued this Tuesday the spokesman for the AEB, José Luis Martínez Campuzano, at an event organized by IBM.
growing problem
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The problem of financial exclusion of the emptied Spain comes from afar, but it has aggravated in the last 14 years. According to data from the Bank of Spain, the number of municipalities without office bank has been shot at 836 and 23% since the real estate bubble burst, from 3,569 in 2008 to 4,405 at the end of 2020. The affected populations represent the 54% of the total. On the other hand, the number of villages no access to cash (via cashier or branch) was located in 4,115 at the end of 2020, with 1.18 million people affected, 2.5% of the population.
The most affected provinces are Burgos (313 municipalities without branches at the end of last year) and Salamanca (307), ahead of Guadalajara (247), Avila (215) and Zamora (203). Valladolid, Segovia, Palencia, Cuenca, Zaragoza and Soria have between 180 and 150 affected populations, while León, Navarra, Teruel, Cáceres, Lleida, Girona, La Rioja, Huesca, Barcelona, Tarragona and Valencia have between 150 and 100. At the opposite extreme, Córdoba, Seville, Lugo, Murcia, the Balearic Islands, Cádiz, Pontevedra, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Las Palmas and Jaén have less than 10 municipalities without an office.
The Financial Client Ombudsman, in autumn
The Ministry of Economy plans to take the project to create the Financial Client Defense Authority to the Council of Ministers early fall to start your parliamentary procedure. The date will depend on reports that you are waiting to receive from other ministries and of Council of State. The Government, in any case, considers that the new institution in charge of resolving the customer complaints of banks, insurers and investment firms may be under way before the end of the legislature (at the end of next year, if there is no early election).
The preliminary draft that he presented at the beginning of April has been branded as “unconstitutional” by the bank employers AEB and CECA, as this newspaper advanced. In this sense, Economy sources point out that the department is analyzing and prioritizing the contributions received from the different agents in the public hearing process and that it is always adjustments possible Regarding the draft for enhance the text be sent to the courts. But they emphasize, yes, that the final objective will be in any case strengthen protection of financial customers and ensure that the courts can do their work quickly and efficiently.
The department led by Nadia Calviño wants the new body to resolve the claims that have been submitted to the Bank of Spainthe National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) and the General Directorate of Insurance and Pension Funds. Its intention is that the decisions of the authority be binding for entities (not for customers) when the amount claimed does not exceed the €20,000.
This represents a far-reaching change, since the opinions of these three supervisors are not mandatory, which means that they are ignored in very high percentages by the entities. Economy also wants the sector to finance the organization with a rate 250 euros per claim received, while for clients is free.