The Generalitat extends the mobile banking service to municipalities without an office until 2028

BarcelonaThe Department of Economy and Finance of the Generalitat has decided to extend the mobile banking service in municipalities without an office until 2028 under the same conditions as until now. In this way, CaixaBank and Caixa Enginyers will continue to be responsible for offering this type of coverage to a total of 453 Catalan municipalities.

As reported by the Government this Thursday in a statement, the network will consist of a total of 13 mobile offices equipped with ATMs and specialized staff. The two entities will operate in 288 municipalities –located mainly in the eastern half of the country– every fifteen days, while in the remaining 165 municipalities –mostly located in the Terres de l'Ebre, the regions of Ponent and the Alt Pirineu i l'Aran– the service will be provided solely by CaixaBank, which will carry out monthly visits. The value of the contract for the next two years reaches almost 1.2 million euros.

Catalonia's mobile banking was launched in September 2024, and began its deployment in the Girona regions, then in Tarragona and the Penedès and, later, in the rest of the Catalan territory. The objective of this initiative is to provide coverage to the inhabitants of rural municipalities or micro-villages –around 300,000 citizens– who, due to the loss of offices, were forced to travel to other towns to carry out any financial transaction. According to data from the Bank of Spain, Catalonia has been one of the communities most affected by the closure of bank branches in the State, with a drop of 73% between the years 2008 and 2022.

Since it was put into operation, CaixaBank and Caixa Enginyers have served 30,785 people, almost 16,000 visits have been completed, and more than 25,000 cash deposit and withdrawal operations have been carried out for a total amount of 12.6 million euros.

Towns without coverage

Although the number of municipalities without banking services has decreased, Catalonia still has 33 localities –according to Government figures– where this coverage is totally absent, a figure that is equivalent to 4% of the total number of towns in the territory.

However, the Government points out that these are, for the most part, municipalities with small populations or consisting of several scattered nuclei, without shops or services and where the inhabitants "are accustomed to traveling to other larger neighboring towns" where these services are available.