Solutions to Financial Exclusion in Rural and Depopulated Areas: Evidence Based in Castilla y León (Spain)

Abstract

Access to banking and financial services is defined by various international organizations as essential to ensure the development of countries and regions. However, this access is not always guaranteed, even in developed countries. Our study focuses on analyzing the current situation of several rural and depopulated areas of Castilla y León (Spain) in terms of access to banking services and cash. For this purpose, an initial spatial analysis has been carried out to compute the access to these services measured in kilometers needed to travel to access them. Subsequently, we included, as a possible solution, the access to these financial services through their implementation (as a cash back point) in the extensive Spanish network of pharmacies. The results obtained in the spatial analysis show that the introduction of the network of pharmacies as a point of access to cash means a significant reduction in the distance to travel in municipalities in rural and unpopulated areas in order to access cash. In the case of the province of Avila the distance would be reduced by 55%, in the province of Segovia the distance would be reduced by 38.5%, in the province of Soria the distance would be reduced by 20%, in the province of Palencia the distance would be reduced by 22%; and finally in the province of Zamora the distance would be reduced by 33%.