In the plenary session last week, July 8, 2021, Eatim de Jesús Pobre unanimously approved of all the political groups the motion against the closure of the only bank branch open in the minor Local Entity, Banco Sabadell, which will close its doors on July 16, 2021, as the regional manager informed him, in addition to 5 other branches in the rest of the region of the Marina Alta.
After 50 years of existence of a bank branch in the town, under various names in successive mergers, it will mean the disappearance of an essential face-to-face financial service.
The Minor Local Entity warns that these branch closures in rural areas and small towns have been accentuated with the COVID-19 crisis, and the reconversion of financial services to digital media, "based exclusively on terms of pandemic excuses, opportunism, profit margins, cost reduction, which will mean the financial exclusion of a vulnerable social group of the rural population, the elderly ".
The Eatim de Jesús Pobre "cannot agree with this measure, nor with any measure that seeks to distance basic services from our neighbors; a purely arithmetic measure by precisely those who benefit from our savings and monetary operations, and that they were rescued by the State several years ago, all this without minimally calculating the necessary social approach with the rural world and the small population centers ", they declare.
For Eatim, the solution is not to close small bank branches and install ATMs, but to have a proximity service that generates trust in customers who deposit their savings and financial resources, face-to-face service and strengthen loyalty ties. .
The suppression of the bank branch as of July 16, 2021 represents a relevant risk of financial exclusion for a large part of the population of Jesús Pobre, having a special impact and that will mean that the residents of this population will see each other forced to go outside the local term to be able to carry out such necessary and daily actions such as withdrawing money, paying a receipt or knowing the situation of their financial products, with the aggravating factor that, in many cases, the elderly and pensioners are made dependent on third parties to scroll; the evident lack of digital literacy for the use of online banking, causing the progressive digitization of the banking sector to multiply the effects of the existing digital divide between urban and rural areas, as well as between the youth community and our elders; and the problems of use and security so that the elderly can carry out these operations at an ATM.
It is not the only claim made by the Minor Local Entity, given that, given the growing situation of bank branch closures in small towns and municipalities, especially in the interior of the Marina Alta, and throughout the province of Alicante, it requires the involvement of the Alicante Provincial Council. To this end, the Alicante Provincial Council is urged to draw up and execute a plan that guarantees banking services in this Minor Local Entity, as well as in those municipalities lacking offices and ATMs, and, therefore, at the beginning of the necessary procedures to avoid the financial exclusion of local entities, betting on collaborative public-private models.
Precisely the public-private collaboration, as well as public spaces for the installation of multifunctional ATMs and mobile offices, will reduce the digital divide, the financial exclusion of the most vulnerable social class such as our elders, the depopulation of the interior of the province and the small towns, and guarantee essential services such as financial, working exclusively with entities committed to the territory of the province of Alicante, and with values of social responsibility and proximity, say from Eatim.
They have now closed the ATM. this is good business practice in my opinion. The nearest branch is now Gata de Gorgos, and I am having problems getting online access!