Research Areas

In July 2022, the three banking associations, Spanish Banking Association (AEB), CECA and the National Union of Credit Cooperatives (UNACC), presented the report developed by Ivie on financial inclusion in Spain. The aim of this report was to study the access to banking services in Spain at municipal level. With this report, a map of financial inclusion in Spain was obtained identifying the municipalities with no physical access to banking services, either in the form of offices (including mobile ones), ATM machines (both in offices and on the move), financial agents or cashpoints in post offices. Once identified, and within the framework of the Observatory on Financial Inclusion, the three banking associations have designed a roadmap with different solutions to achieve their commitment to strengthen financial inclusion in Spain.

According to the Report on Financial Inclusion in Spain released in July 2022, as of 31 December 2021, 243 municipalities with over 500 inhabitants were identified that had no in-person access to banking services, i.e., a total of 211,550 people who reside in them (0.45% of the national total). In order to monitor the degree of compliance with the commitment of the banking associations, this new project carried out jointly with the Ivie includes the development of quarterly reports to regularly monitor the measures adopted, with the double objective of readjusting the roadmap if necessary and identifying alternatives that will enable a better compliance with the objectives pursued. In addition, an annual report will also be carried out to review the access to banking services, with the most up-to-date information.

Both the annual and quarterly reports will be based on information sent by the banking entities on the municipalities initially included in the scope of the Protocol, indicating, if applicable, the variations in the points of in-person access to banking services in each of them and detailing their typology.