Un repaso de las diversas iniciativas desplegadas a nivel nacional e internacional para hacer frente a los riesgos de exclusión financiera
Series: Occasional Papers. 2305.
Author: María Alonso, Eduardo Gutiérrez, Enrique Moral-Benito, Diana Posada and Patrocinio Tello-Casas.
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Summary
Difficulties in accessing banking services by certain population groups, in particular those living in rural areas and/or the elderly, are a source of potential vulnerability with regard to the risk of financial exclusion of these cohorts. This paper summarises the actions deployed, by public and private institutions, in order to mitigate these risks in European countries, with special emphasis on Spain. Although these initiatives are diverse in nature and depend on idiosyncratic factors in each country, a systematic review allows the following conclusions to be drawn from a comparative perspective. First, it is worth noting the deployment in several European countries of networks of cash access points shared by different banks, although their implementation is, for the time being, relatively lower in Spain. Second, regarding public-private collaboration initiatives, both in Spain and in other European countries, the use of agreements between banks and post offices, which have well-distributed networks of offices, stands out. Third, the most common public sector initiatives consist of aid for the instalment of ATMs in rural areas. However, legislation regulating minimum provision of cash access points is only in force in Sweden, where the use of cash is so low that its potential disappearance poses a threat to the viability of cash infrastructure.