Spain Reduces ATM Numbers to 2002 Levels as Country Moves to Digital Payments

The variety of ATMs in Spain has been progressively shrinking to ranges the nation noticed within the 12 months 2002. Reports from native media counsel these actions have been taken to scale back prices and to push cost and operation digitalization within the sector. The highest variety of ATMs was registered in 2008 when there have been 61,714 energetic machines within the community.

Banks in Spain Reduce ATMs

The variety of ATMs in Spain has dropped to its lowest stage since 2002, when the community had 1,795 extra ATMs than it has right now. According to a current report from the Bank of Spain, the community had 48,081 ATMs on the finish of the third quarter of 2021. This discount has to do with makes an attempt to decrease prices within the banking sector amidst a push for digitalization in funds and banking processes.

The highest variety of ATMs within the community was registered in 2008 when there have been 61,714 ATMs registered within the nation. Since then, banks have progressively eliminated machines from this community. However, utilization of the remaining ATMs has gone up, based on the identical report. Just in Q3-2021, Spaniards made 171,300 withdrawal transactions utilizing ATMs, a rise of 1.04% in comparison with the identical interval in 2020.

The Push for Digitalization

The Spanish authorities has been lowering the amount of cash that may be paid in money per transaction. Last 12 months, Spain’s antifraud law, which additionally regulated some points concerning cryptocurrency belongings, handed controls for money funds relying on the kind of transaction. The aforementioned regulation established that funds in money may solely be made as much as the restrict of €1,000. Sidestepping this regulation may end in sanctions of 25% of the funds made, which might be paid by every occasion to the transaction.

However, native media states these developments may disproportionately have an effect on Spanish residents in rural areas, who’re those that rely most on money for his or her on a regular basis wants.

The current push has pushed an increasing number of residents of the nation to digital funds. For instance, the nationwide survey for money funds, carried out July 2021, found that solely 35% of the surveyed residents used money for funds. This constitutes a major change in comparison with how funds had been made in 2014, the place 80% of residents used money as a funds instrument.

While money utilization has gone down, Spain nonetheless makes use of more money for funds than nations like Sweden, the place less than 10% of the inhabitants makes use of bodily paper and cash to pay.

What do you consider the discount in ATMs and the push for digital funds in Spain? Tell us within the feedback part beneath.