Research Areas

The sharp reduction in the number of bank branches (62%) that has taken place in Spain since 2008, year which marked the maximum reached, is a matter of concern due to the problems it generates in terms of access to banking services and, therefore, affects the financial inclusion of the population. This concern has forced the three banking associations, Spanish Banking Association (AEB), CECA and the National Union of Credit Cooperatives (UNACC), to design a roadmap to reduce financial exclusion, with very specific measures depending on the size of the municipality affected.

Thus, an observatory on financial inclusion in Spain was previously drawn up, which has given rise to two reports developed by the Ivie. The first contains information as of December 2021 and the other from December 2022. In addition, this report takes a step forward in the analysis of accessibility to banking services in the specific case of the Valencian Community, descending below the municipality as far as the geographical focus is concerned. This is possible by working with data at census level, which is a much smaller geographical scope. Thus, if there are 542 municipalities in the Valencian Community, the number of census sections in 2022 is much higher (3,484).