Bank branches lopped

BANKS in Spain’s rural areas are becoming hard to find.

Over the past year, Spain’s high street banks left another 121 municipalities without branches despite agreeing to provide financial inclusion for vulnerable groups.

According to the Bank of Spain, 4,618 of the country’s 8,131 municipalities ­ 57 per cent ­ no longer have a bank branch al ­ though in practice, a few still have banking facilities.

Following the Unicaja­Liberbank merger, the Andalucia­based bank has maintained offices under its own name through a franchise system which did not show up in the Bank of Spain statistics.

Meanwhile, the province of Palencia in Castilla­Leon is Spain’s worst­hit province.