{"id":37822,"date":"2022-07-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aebanca.es\/actualidad\/notas-de-prensa\/the-banking-sector-reaffirms-its-commitment-to-financial-inclusion\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T12:37:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T10:37:49","slug":"the-banking-sector-reaffirms-its-commitment-to-financial-inclusion","status":"publish","type":"notas-de-prensa","link":"https:\/\/aebanca.es\/en\/actualidad\/notas-de-prensa\/the-banking-sector-reaffirms-its-commitment-to-financial-inclusion\/","title":{"rendered":"The banking sector reaffirms its commitment to financial inclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>The &#8216;Financial Inclusion Report&#8217; presented today fulfills the recommendations of the Strategic Protocol to reinforce the Social and Sustainable Commitment of Banking, signed one year ago.<\/li>\n<li>Joaqu\u00edn Maudos, researcher at Ivie and director of the report, highlights that accessibility to banking services is good, as 98.6% of the population resides in a municipality with at least one banking service access point.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Spanish Banking Association (AEB), CECA, and the National Union of Credit Cooperatives (UNACC) presented the &#8220;Report on Financial Inclusion in Spain&#8221; today in Madrid, prepared by the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (Ivie). This in-depth analysis of banking services in Spain maps out access to financial services in the country, particularly in rural areas. It notes that, despite the adjustment in Spain&#8217;s bank branch network in recent years\u2014concentrated in municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants\u2014&#8221;accessibility to banking services is good, as 98.6% of the population currently resides in a municipality where there is at least one access point to banking services.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>The event included representatives from the three banking associations that promoted the report. In their speeches, they reaffirmed the banking sector&#8217;s commitment to financial inclusion and the fulfillment of the actions outlined in the Strategic Protocol to reinforce the Social and Sustainable Commitment of Banking, signed a year ago. These measures include updating the map of access to financial services in rural Spain, so that in the future, the sector and public administrations can jointly establish mechanisms to expand access to basic financial services for the population. <\/p>\n<p>Mar\u00eda Abascal, Director General of the AEB, recalled that the banking sector&#8217;s objective has always been to support all its clients, including those in rural areas. In this regard, Abascal noted that &#8220;the sector is working with sensitivity and responsibility to provide an appropriate response to this situation.&#8221; Along these lines, Antonio Romero, Corporate Director of Associative Services and Resources at CECA, highlighted that &#8220;depopulation in Spain is a phenomenon that affects the provision of all types of services. The banking sector, in line with its social commitment, has been deploying measures for many years to promote access to financial services in rural areas.&#8221; Finally, Cristina Freijanes, Secretary General of UNACC, emphasized &#8220;the financial sector&#8217;s commitment to society, which is reflected in the initiatives that the associations carry out jointly to unite efforts toward common goals.&#8221;   <\/p>\n<p>The report was presented by Joaqu\u00edn Maudos, Professor of Economic Analysis at the University of Valencia, Deputy Director of Ivie, and collaborator at CUNEF. As the director of the research team responsible for the study, he highlighted some of the main conclusions of the in-depth study.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding the adjustment process of the bank branch network\u2014driven by the financial crisis, low profitability in a context of low interest rates, and the growth of banking and non-banking competition\u2014the report concludes that it has not resulted in financial exclusion. This is due to the existence of other access points to banking services (ATMs, financial agents, mobile branches, post offices) and the growth of online banking users. However, considering the difficulties of certain vulnerable groups and the potential risk of exclusion, the study quantified the percentage of the population residing in municipalities without any access point to banking services, as well as the distance to the nearest ones. <\/p>\n<p>The analysis shows that most of the adjustment in the branch network took place in municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants (81.8%), while municipalities with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants accounted for only 3% of the reduction.<\/p>\n<p>The report indicates that financial exclusion cannot be claimed for these municipalities as a whole, since, when other means of access to banking services are considered, the percentage of the population in these circumstances drops from 3.3% to 1.4%. &#8220;Specifically, 898,131 people and 1,192 municipalities can access banking services in their municipality of residence because the banking sector has adopted measures to prevent financial exclusion, such as installing an ATM where there is no branch, signing an agreement with the Post Office, offering the services of a financial agent, and\/or providing services through mobile branches,&#8221; the study notes. Furthermore, taking into account access to other nearby branches, it concludes that &#8220;the problem of accessibility to banking services is very limited,&#8221; as 99.1% of the population has an access point to banking services less than 5 kilometers away and 99.5% less than 10 minutes away.  <\/p>\n<p>Based on the results of this report, the assessment of the financial inclusion measures adopted, and their own vocation for service to society, the banking associations will evaluate new measures to further strengthen financial inclusion.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/s2.aebanca.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/el-sector-bancario-reafirma-su-compromiso-con-la-inclusion-financiera.pdf\">Download the press release<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/s1.aebanca.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/informe-sobre-la-inclusion-financiera-en-espana-290622.pdf\">Download the report on financial inclusion in Spain <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Spanish Banking Association (AEB), CECA, and the National Union of Credit Cooperatives (UNACC) presented the &#8220;Report on Financial Inclusion in Spain&#8221; today in Madrid, prepared by the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (Ivie). This in-depth analysis of banking services in Spain maps out access to financial services in the country, particularly in rural areas. It notes that, despite the adjustment in Spain&#8217;s bank branch network in recent years\u2014concentrated in municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants\u2014&#8221;accessibility to banking services is good, as 98.6% of the population currently resides in a municipality where there is at least one access point to banking services.&#8221; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":37824,"parent":0,"template":"","etiquetas-prensa":[846],"class_list":["post-37822","notas-de-prensa","type-notas-de-prensa","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","etiquetas-prensa-financial-inclusion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The banking sector reaffirms its commitment to financial inclusion - Asociaci\u00f3n Espa\u00f1ola de Banca<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aebanca.es\/en\/actualidad\/notas-de-prensa\/the-banking-sector-reaffirms-its-commitment-to-financial-inclusion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The banking sector reaffirms its commitment to financial inclusion - Asociaci\u00f3n Espa\u00f1ola de Banca\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Spanish Banking Association (AEB), CECA, and the National Union of Credit Cooperatives (UNACC) presented the &quot;Report on Financial Inclusion in Spain&quot; today in Madrid, prepared by the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (Ivie). This in-depth analysis of banking services in Spain maps out access to financial services in the country, particularly in rural areas. It notes that, despite the adjustment in Spain&#039;s bank branch network in recent years\u2014concentrated in municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants\u2014&quot;accessibility to banking services is good, as 98.6% of the population currently resides in a municipality where there is at least one access point to banking services.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/aebanca.es\/en\/actualidad\/notas-de-prensa\/the-banking-sector-reaffirms-its-commitment-to-financial-inclusion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Asociaci\u00f3n Espa\u00f1ola de Banca\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-09T10:37:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/aebanca.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/inclusion-financiera-foto-familia-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1722\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@aebanca\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/aebanca.es\\\/en\\\/actualidad\\\/notas-de-prensa\\\/the-banking-sector-reaffirms-its-commitment-to-financial-inclusion\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/aebanca.es\\\/en\\\/actualidad\\\/notas-de-prensa\\\/the-banking-sector-reaffirms-its-commitment-to-financial-inclusion\\\/\",\"name\":\"The banking sector reaffirms its commitment to financial inclusion - 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This in-depth analysis of banking services in Spain maps out access to financial services in the country, particularly in rural areas. 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