The Government will prohibit banks from charging commissions to those over 65 years of age for withdrawing cash at the counter

2023-12-18 22:07:37

Those over 65 years of age will no longer have to pay commissions for withdrawing cash at the counter. This is one of the main measures aimed at the senior group that was announced by the still First Vice President and Minister of Economy, Commerce and Business, Nadia Calviño, after meeting this Monday with the banking associations AEB, CECA and Unacc; with the Association of Financial Users; the Seniors Platform; the Bank of Spain, and Major Carlos San Juan. “We are going to adopt a legal change to prohibit the collection of cash withdrawals from older people. Let this element of unrest be eliminated,” stressed the head of the Economy.

Nadia Calviño has acknowledged that “a good part of the entities” have applied measures voluntarily, but that there are still some that have not done so. Regarding the protocol signed in February 2022 to guarantee the financial inclusion of the elderly and people with disabilities, Calviño indicated that 82.2% of offices have extended public service hours, there are already 94% of adapted ATMs and 277,000 Seniors received financial training in the first semester.

The signing of this protocol was one of the great victories that the group of retirees scored thanks to the impulse of Carlos San Juan and his ‘I am older, not an idiot’ campaign, which collected more than 600,000 signatures. “If it is found that [las medidas] “They are insufficient or can be improved, we will have to see together how to extend or improve them,” Calviño said last year after signing the agreement with the bank employers’ associations. Among the protocol’s star measures were: expanding cashier services with personalized attention for seniors from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. (until 6:00 p.m. for users without an office); offer priority to this group in case of high influx in the offices; specific training for commercial network personnel on the needs of this group; facilitate preferential telephone attention; ease of use in ATMs, mobile apps and web pages; ATM repair in a maximum of two business days; increased financial education and banking communications; and monitoring of the Financial Inclusion Observatory.

On the part of the elderly, the head of the Seniors and Pensioners Platform (PMP), Lázaro González, welcomed the new measures, in particular, that commissions will be prohibited, and from Asufin, its head, Patricia Suárez, He regretted that Spanish banks are still below the remuneration of deposits compared to other European countries. Finally, Calviño also announced at the meeting the relaunch of the project to create the Financial Client Defense Authority, which has until December 26 to make allegations. The vice president highlighted the urgency of this project being underway and the general secretary of Unacc, Cristina Freijanes, stated that the sector will make her allegations.

During the meeting, other issues related to the situation of the financial system were also analyzed and, in particular, the incidents that have occurred in recent weeks in the Redsys payment system. It was agreed to implement different measures to reinforce the security and trust of users and prevent similar episodes from being repeated, according to the department headed by Calviño.

At the meeting, the Government also addressed the monitoring of the other two codes of good practices that it has signed with the banks, that of rural services and that of the protection of mortgage clients vulnerable due to the rise in interest rates. Regarding this last point, the meeting ended with the Executive’s commitment to extend the mortgage relief measures and approve the extension of the beneficiary threshold to vulnerable or at risk of being mortgaged with incomes of up to 38,000 euros per year – it was at 29,400 euros. .