Comares expands branch services and cash machine access to tackle rural banking exclusion

The town hall, led by a coalition of the socialist PSOE party and centre-right Partido Popular (PP), has announced the agreement following discussions with the Cajamar bank to ensure residents have access to basic banking services without having to travel to other towns of villages.

One of the key features will be the cash machine, which will be located in Plaza Balcón de la Axarquía, one of the main public spaces in the village centre.

According to information released by the town hall it will be available 24 hours a day, enabling users to carry out basic transactions regardless of the bank’s opening hours.

The new model will also retain face-to-face service, which is particularly important in towns and villages where some members of the population find it more difficult to use online banking. The town hall has announced opening hours from 8.30am to 2pm with staff on hand, although the statement issued by the town hall does not specify the exact days of the week on which this service will be provided.

“We are continuing to work to guarantee and improve basic financial services in our municipality,” the town hall stated in an official announcement of the agreement. It presents this expansion as an improvement in the service provided to residents and as a way of maintaining services in the village that have been gradually reduced in many rural municipalities over recent years.

Financial exclusion in rural areas has been a concern for the authorities for many years. In 2023, data compiled by the Andalusian regional government and the provincial authority, the Diputación de Málaga, indicated that in Malaga province there were some 43,000 residents across 27 municipalities without access to cash machines in their own towns or villages. The gradual closure of bank branches had hit the small villages of the Serranía de Ronda and the Axarquía particularly hard.

The demographic situation in Comares helps to explain the importance of maintaining these services. According to the Andalusian Institute of Statistics and Cartography, the municipality had 1,345 inhabitants in 2025, with an average age of 53 and 32.2 per cent of residents aged over 65. Furthermore, 603 residents live in rural areas, compared with 742 living in built-up areas, which also introduces a geographical dimension to access to essential services.

Ageing is one of the most pressing concerns in this process of banking digitalisation. The rise of online and mobile banking has reduced the need for branches for some sections of the population, but it has also left older people who are unaccustomed to new technologies in a more vulnerable position. In Andalucía, in 2023 there were more than 138,000 people across 177 municipalities without access to an ATM, according to data published at the time by SUR based on plans put forward by the regional government.

The authorities have been trying to fill part of this gap through agreements with financial institutions. The Diputación had already allocated some 132,000 euros in 2023 to facilitate the installation of cash machines in nine small municipalities, including Arenas, Canillas de Albaida, Cútar and Macharaviaya, in the Axarquía region. The president of the Diputación, Francisco Salado, defended these measures at the time as a means of combating depopulation and ensuring that those living in small municipalities have access to services similar to those in cities.

The Andalusian government subsequently promoted a broader framework for collaboration with provincial councils and financial institutions. The regional spokesperson for the economy, Carolina España, argued that certain people , “either because of their age or the town in which they live”, might be excluded from the new digital banking model, and she emphasised the need to avoid having to travel to carry out everyday transactions such as withdrawing cash.

Read comprehensive local news from the Axarquía