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The number of financially excluded municipalities with over 500 inhabitants has decreased by 32.5%

The results of the action plan presented by AEB, CECA and UNACC show a 32.9% drop in the number of people affected by financial exclusion in municipalities with over 500 inhabitants

The Spanish Banking Association (AEB), CECA and the National Union of Credit Cooperatives (UNACC) have released the first quarterly analysis of the plan against financial exclusion which was launched last year after the publication of the Report on Financial Inclusion in Spain, developed by the Ivie. According to the updated information, as of December 2021, 243 municipalities with over 500 inhabitants had no physical access to banking services, such as offices, ATM machines, financial agents, mobile offices and post offices.

Exactly one year later, in December 2022, the data reveals that 79 of these municipalities have installed or offered some type of banking access, reducing the number of financially excluded municipalities by 32.5%. Furthermore, in terms of inhabitants, the population of people who are financially excluded has decreased by an additional 32.9% in terms of population, from 211,550 to 141,992 at the end of 2022.

Castilla y León is the region that experienced the greatest decline in terms of absolute numbers with a reduction of 15,205 financially excluded inhabitants, followed by Comunitat Valenciana (13,256) and Cataluña (12,145). By provinces, the following stand out: Cantabria (8,056), Guadalajara (7,367), Valencia (7,336) and Palencia (5,483).

These changes are a result of the following: 1 municipality has opened a bank office, 26 have installed a bank ATM machine, 26 now have cooperating post offices, 19 have mobile offices, and another 16 have installed a non-bank ATM machine. Several of these municipalities have implemented more than one of these projects to reduce the number of financially excluded population in their area.