Cash machines for isolated areas

CAIXABANK has won a €8 million Generalitat contract to install 135 ATMs in the Valencian Community’s depopulated rural areas.
The tender to provide the cash machines was announced in 2016 but Spain’s banks showed a marked lack of enthusiasm when tenders were invited just one week before the State of Alarm announcement last March.
The scheme finally got off the ground only because the Generalitat decided in July last year to cancel the initial process, modifying some requirements and eliminating others, including the stipulation that the ATMs should include a bankbook reader.
The initial contract’s specification requiring the physical presence of a bank employee for 50 hours each year has likewise disappeared.  Attention will now be provided online although 30 per cent of residents in depopulated areas are over 65 and not familiar with digital technology.
By May this year, the Generalitat had received six offers to install ATMS in municipalities without a bank but of these, only the CaixaBank was actually a bank.
The remainder were not financial institutions although one, Eurocaja Rural, was a financial cooperative.