Cash and Financial Inclusion in Spain.

Denaria Platform aims to transfer to society the relevance of cash as an essential asset, in terms of economic interaction but also financial and social inclusion as it allows all people to manage themselves, without affecting their age, ability or geographical location. In its presentation, in September 2021, Denaria, published the results a survey on the importance of cash in society: 70% of spaniards consider access to cash essential in their lives, just over 30 million citizens. According to the same,the majority, 58%, say there are more barriers to cash now than before the Covid-19 pandemic, and 7%, reported having trouble paying with cash at least once since the Covid-19 pandemic began, rising to 13.6 % in cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants.
The aggressive digitization of payment methods has generated a major alarm regarding the financial and economic exclusion of large sections of the population. Public institutions should therefore be alerted to the risks and irreversible consequences for the economy and society of cash restraint. This would entail social risks due to growing financial exclusion, as well as risks of territorial disruption that particularly affect rural areas; security risks, as industries or areas could be unprotected from cyber attacks or network crashes; lack of alternative means of payment in emergency situations; and economic risks in sectors and areas where cash is essential for tradedevelopment.It is a fact that digital revolution in the field of banking is underminingthe universal right of access to cash, laying down socially or economically vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, the disabled, rural areas or small businesses. Many citizens in Spain feel themselves financially excluded.
DENARIA works on raising awareness about the importance of cash as a critical infrastructure in the economy, especially in situations of contingency:emergency situations, such as hacker attacks, natural disasters or wars have highlighted the need to have cash to ensure the functioning of the economy. But also on the difficulty of access to cash -withdrawal and delivery – due to situations such as an increasing distance to the bank office or obstacles to the management of digital systems that can be a factor of financial and social exclusion. Denaria has also favored increasing the cash payment limit, currently set at €1,000. The recent opinion of the European Central Bank (March 15th) harshly criticizes it for being disproportionate and anticipates “adverse effects on the legal tender status of euro banknotes, which is the only legal tender for European citizens”. The institution responsible for monetary policy recalls that cash is always available as “does not require an operational technical infrastructure or related investments, very relevant considerations, for example in cases of power outage or failure of electronic payment systems.