A network of mobile banking offices will cover the 503 municipalities in Catalonia that currently do not have ATMs or branches. The residents of these municipalities, 307,553 citizens, are forced to travel to other localities to obtain cash or carry out other procedures. The Generalitat has awarded CaixaBank and Caixa d’Enginyers this service of mobile cashiers, who will travel with staff to be able to attend to customers, a very high percentage of whom are elderly, and offer them the same services as in any face-to-face office .
The Department of Economy and Finance has awarded the service for 909,960 euros per year for two renewable years. CaixaBank assumes five of the eight lots in which the contract has been divided, which results in the coverage of 503 municipalities spread over 41 counties. Three more lots (313 municipalities in 24 counties) have been awarded to Caixa d’Enginyers. In the municipalities where the two entities will operate, the mobile office will be available two days a month for the low end, while in the rest the minimum service will be one day a month.
The mobile offices will go into service in six or nine months, if possible. “More than half of the municipalities in Catalonia, 53%, did not have financial services; we decided that it was necessary to turn the situation around and for months we have been working with the financial institutions to define a service that everyone agrees is innovative and will make life easier for citizens”, said yesterday morning the Minister of Economy and Finance, Natàlia Mas Plaster, at the presentation of the service in Alpens (Lluçanès). This population of just 300 residents is one of the eight in this region that does not have an office or a cashier. “Not having this service increases the risk of financial exclusion by territory and age”, added the minister.
The Government approved the plan to provide coverage to all municipalities in Catalonia in July last year. The operation will allow, within a period of nine months, not only to recover the service in municipalities that once had an office, but which ended up being closed, but also to offer it in towns that have never had a branch and that, according to sources of the Ministry, are 80% of the localities that have been included in the award, around 400 towns.
The basis of the competition establishes that the two awarding entities must design the route of the office van so that in villages with up to 250 inhabitants the service is a minimum of 30 minutes, and in municipalities with more than 250 residents, a minimum of an hour The hours will be from eight in the morning to five in the afternoon, and on Fridays and from May 23 to September 30, from eight in the morning to three in the afternoon. The town councils will also play a role in the operation and will be in charge of determining the location of the mobile banking office in each municipality, guaranteeing the supply of energy, disseminating the service among the population and also reporting any incidents that are detected.
The Generalitat has distributed the contract in five zones to cover the entire territory with the itineraries of the office vans. The regions with the highest deficit of branches and ATMs are Alt Empordà (with 44 municipalities without service), Osona (26), Baix Empordà (24 municipalities), Anoia (22), Priorat and Berguedà (21), Alt Camp and Noguera (18), Baix Camp and Segarra (17). The service will be fortnightly or monthly, depending on the population, and should be fully operational by December.
