“They are doing us a favor, being older this is a relief,” was the first thing Núria said when she saw the mobile ATM parked in front of the Pacs del Penedès Town Hall. From now on, residents of municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants in the province of Barcelona will no longer have to travel to carry out banking transactions. Yesterday, the Provincial Council launched the mobile ATM assistance service, which will serve 96 towns and their 58,000 inhabitants who now have to travel to withdraw cash or carry out a personalized banking procedure.
The service started yesterday afternoon in Pacs del Penedès (Alt Penedès), a town of 915 inhabitants. Neighbors in the area approached the mobile ATM and some were encouraged to withdraw money. Josep, the first neighbor to use the service, was optimistic: “We are happy, I think all small towns miss these services; Because we are small, we do not have to suffer these limitations.” Most of the residents of this town depend on family members or neighbors to carry out banking procedures. “I always had to travel to nearby towns or do some paperwork online,” Josep explained.
Maria, another resident of Pacs del Penedès, protested the unequal treatment given to small towns: “They would have to put permanent ATMs, not the caravan, in all the municipalities in this area they have fewer of us.” She assures that to go get money they always had to travel by car.
From the Provincial Council they explain that installing fixed ATMs was one of the options that were studied but it turned out to be unviable. Nico Pérez, manager of Assistance Services of the provincial entity, stated that banking is a service that had been requested by several municipalities and that the need became more urgent when many banks eliminated their branches and ATMs. “We were looking at different possibilities, at first we wanted to put fixed ATMs, but we saw that they did not provide a service to everyone, many users want someone to serve them,” he justifies.
On the other hand, the Provincial Council assures that the first two months of service will be used to calculate all the routes, and the duration of the procedures in each municipality and then they will be adjusted to the needs they detect.
The frequency of the service will vary depending on the volume of the population. For municipalities with less than 1,000 inhabitants, the mobile ATM will have a monthly frequency, which will affect 84% of potential users, while municipalities with more than 1,000 inhabitants will have this service at their disposal twice a month.
María liked the regularity of the service, “I usually go to the bank once a month.” She usually pays in most stores with a card, so she doesn't need to take out cash on a regular basis.
Montserrat Amat, mayor of Pacs del Penedès stated that due to the size of the town, they had never had a banking entity. “We have an aging population, we are very happy to be able to offer this service, even if it is once a month.” Likewise, she stated that the communication with the council has been very direct. “We have centralized the mobile box taking into account all the services that we want to offer in the future,” declared the mayor. In the area where the ATM is located, they plan to put a pharmacy and a local business, coinciding with the proximity to the City Hall.
