• Javier Rupérez (1941, Madrid) is the president of the Denaria platform, an association for the defence of cash that seeks to warn about the risks of restricting this method of payment.

At an event held this Monday in the Congress of Deputies, the former deputy of the Popular Party (PP) warned: ‘The decrease in cash excludes the most vulnerable and puts financial inclusion at risk’. The withdrawal of banking infrastructures, with more than 7,000 ATMs eliminated since the pandemic, according to the Bank of Spain, affects people with disabilities, the elderly and inhabitants of rural areas. Faced with this situation, Rupérez calls for more demanding legislation than the current General Law for the Defence of Consumers and Users in Spain of 2022, which obliges all businesses to accept cash payments, and advocates protecting this method as a constitutional right as in Austria.

Although Spanish law protects the right to pay in cash since 28 May 2022 (when the reform was approved), this payment method has lost several battles lately. The Denaria platform has received an increasing number of complaints from citizens against public administrations, museums, sports facilities and airlines that refused this payment method when they should not: ‘Public entities cannot restrict cash payment’, said Rupérez during the event. The association also points out that examples such as the Housing Act of December 2023 endanger cash by prohibiting the payment of rent by this method. In addition to these obstacles, there is the reduction in the number of ATMs in Spain. Almost 20,000 bank branches have closed since 2013 and more than 3,000 municipalities have no banking services at all, according to the Bank of Spain.

This situation leads to the exclusion of various segments of the population, such as the rural world. Rita Mateos, from the Association of Families and Women in Rural Areas (Afammer), has stated that the rural population of Spain is obliged to travel many kilometres to withdraw cash. Forty percent of the country's municipalities have less than 1,000 inhabitants and no cash machines. In the same vein, Miguel Padilla, secretary general of COAG (Coordinadora de Organizaciones de Agricultores y Ganaderos) explained that the agricultural sector is ‘undoubtedly’ one of those who suffer most from the situation, since ‘transactions are made in cash’ in agriculture. ‘We want people to continue living in these villages, but we take everything away from them,’ added Padilla, who considers the obstacles to cash to be an “added difficulty” to those that the sector faces every day.

The decline of cash is also affecting older people. José Luis Fernández Santillana, president of the Spanish Confederation of Elderly People's Organisations, said that having to pay online or with a bank card means added costs for the elderly, as they are financially vulnerable: ‘It is a question of justice. We cannot make payment conditional on those who have internet or bank cards,’ he said. According to records released by the Ministry of Social Security, pensioners receive an average pension of 1,501 euros per month.

For people with disabilities, who represent more than 4 million people in Spain, according to the government, cash represents a ‘clear tool for social participation and financial inclusion that empowers them’, according to Pilar Villarino, executive director of the Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (Cermi). Cash allows the ‘socialisation of people who suffer the most from the forced loneliness in this society’, she added.

Despite these difficulties, cash remains a valued method of payment in Spain. In 2023, 65% of the population used cash, according to the Bank of Spain.

Promoting the use of cash

Several political figures attended the event and pledged to act to mitigate this problem. The deputy of the Partido Popular and fourth secretary of the Congress of Deputies, Carmen Navarro, announced that her group will register a bill to dedicate a day to promote the use of cash as the only means of payment.

Carlos Martín Urriza, from Sumar, stressed that the banks are responsible for this situation, having reduced customer service and basic services in the rural world, and that his party will propose measures in the summer to get the financial sector to re-engage in this area. As for Isidre Gavin, of Junts Per Catalunya, he assured that his party is working on a law to ensure that every municipality has an ATM.

Source: Cinco Días