The vice president says she is not aware that the entities want to eliminate the cards, but affirms that she will ask them about it
The economic vice president, Nadia Calvinohas affirmed this Monday not having “no record” about what there is banks that they are removed the notebooks or limiting its use, but he has stated that he is going to ask the sector about this matter and “some other news that is circulating” at the meeting that he will hold with representatives of the entities and consumers next March 9, to “verify what is really happening” before “running” to conclusions. “The message that we send to financial institutions, and I do not want to leave any doubt about it, is a responsibility message“, has warned during a interview in ‘TVE’.
“Financial institutions they are responsible and they have to have one special attention in the care of its clients, and especially of the old people and people with disability, who may have greater difficulty at a certain time to use the new digital media. From the Government we are committed to the elderly, because a society that does not care for its elders is a worse society”, Calviño maintained.
Groups of the elderly have been ensuring for some time that some financial entities are removed or limiting the use of primers banking. “A year ago we met ATMs without slots nor ‘contactless’ –in my fundamental case, because it is difficult for me to type–. They had removed them on the grounds that ‘only’ the 36% of the elderly used them, when that figure is explained by those who died from coronavirus. I never tire of repeating that the only thing we ask is to see if we have received the pension and if any unexpected expense has crept in,” said the retired doctor Carlos Saint Johnwho led the ‘I’m older, not an idiot’ campaign for better banking treatment of the elderly, in a recent interview with this newspaper.
The bank denies it
The entities, however, deny that they have eliminated or are going to eliminate the notebooks. “We are closely following their demands and needs. Will this product be maintained?, which is very important to them, which is the primer. All the entities are telling us that the card will be maintained for those over 65. In the field of the AEB they are three million of cards, there are many cards in the hands of the elderly, and they are going to be maintained,” said the president of the employer AEB (traditional banks), Alejandra Kindelan. The same is transferred from the area of the old savings banks.
In recent days, a photo of a poster placed on a Santander ATM in which it was supposedly reported that it would no longer be possible to operate with a book at ATMs and that it would be necessary to operate with a card or mobile devices. At the bank, however, it is ensured that all clients over 65 years of age who have a card have been maintained with all its operations intact and that the only thing that is not done is to grant new passbooks to younger clients.
Meeting at the Ministry
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At the meeting on March 9, Vice President Calviño will discuss with the representatives of banks and clients the degree of compliance of the codes of good practice that were approved last year to improve the treatment of greaterexpand the financial service in the rural spainand restructure the mortgages of debtors in distress due to the rise in the Euribor. “This is a very good time for us to sit down at my level and we can share how these codes are working and if do we have to take action or not additions,” he said.
Calviño, likewise, has once again urged the parliamentary groups to promote the processing of the law that will create the Financial Client Defense Authority: “This new authority will also be able to supervise the codes of good practice and therefore represents a very important reinforcement of the protection of citizens.” Last week, the vice president already made the same appeal, given the risk that the project would decline with the end of the legislature. “We cannot play into the hands of those who want this bill to get stuck in Parliament,” she claimed.