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Not having a teller or bank office in the village is a problem for thousands of residents, who are forced to travel to the nearest municipality that has this service, to carry out routine tasks such as withdrawing or depositing money. To put an end to this grievance, the Generalitat de Catalunya has created a network of mobile banking offices that will offer personalized financial assistance to the 503 municipalities in Catalonia that do not have an ATM. The entities in charge of doing this will be Caixabank and Caixa Enginyers.
The first mobile offices will start operating in September and the aim is to cover 100% of the country's population within a maximum period of nine months. Currently, 54% of municipalities in Catalonia do not have a bank branch. This means that more than 300,000 Catalans are at risk of financial exclusion, in other words, they do not have access to financial services in their town or city. According to the Minister of Economy and Finance, Natàlia Mas Guix, the project will guarantee financial inclusion everywhere, and "will end a situation that we consider unfair" so that "no citizen feels excluded due to place of residence, age, digital skills or economic resources”.
Mobile banking is expected to be up and running within a maximum of nine months. CaixaBank will operate in 503 municipalities, distributed in 41 regions, while Caixa Enginyers will operate in 313 municipalities, in 24 regions. The service will be provided by the two entities which, alternately, will go every fortnight to the municipalities in which both operate, and once a month to the towns where only one entity provides service.
The Generalitat has awarded the contract for two years, extendable for two more, and for an amount of 990,920 euros per year. The cost of the service will be shared by the Generalitat and the entities.
The mobile banking offices will allow customers of any entity to perform all the services typical of a banking office: withdraw and deposit cash, direct payment of receipts and taxes to bank accounts; check movements and balance and obtain statements of bank accounts, among others. In addition, they will also provide personalized attention in the management of both accounts and other banking and financial products of assets, liabilities and intermediation.
Each entity must make a route proposal that guarantees the visit of the mobile banking office one day a month in each municipality. In the case of towns with up to 250 inhabitants, you must be there for a minimum of 30 minutes and, in those with more than 250 inhabitants, you will not be able to drop the hour.
Regarding the service hours, they will be from Monday to Friday from 8.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m., with an hour break for lunch, except for Fridays, when the service will end at 3.00 p.m. In the period from May 23 to September 30, the service will be from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday to Friday.
Since 2008, almost three out of every four bank branches have disappeared in Catalonia, a total of 5,961. According to data from the Bank of Spain, fourteen years ago there were 8,155 branches and in 2022 this figure has dropped to 2,194. This is a generalized trend throughout Europe which, in the case of Catalonia, has been more intense. While the number of offices has fallen by 41% in the European Union and by 58% in the State, in Catalonia the decline has been by 73%.
Faced with this situation, Councilor Natàlia Mas emphasizes that the initiative to bring mobile bank offices to all municipalities is a clear commitment to territorial rebalancing, one of the Government's priority axes. The head of Economy and Finance considers that the challenge as a Government and as a country is to ensure that any citizen can live a dignified life throughout the Catalan territory.
Town councils will play an active role in the implementation of the mobile banking service. They will be in charge of determining the location, guaranteeing a power outlet, spreading the word about the service, collecting the incidents that occur and transferring them to those responsible, and drawing up an annual report with the assessment of the quality of the service.
