This Tuesday, the PS questioned the Minister of Finance about the reduction of banking services that Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) is providing in the interior and the islands to find out what measures will be adopted to safeguard these populations.
In statements to the Lusa agency, the PS deputy, Nuno Fazenda, expressed the concern of the socialists about the news this Tuesday from the newspaper Público that the CGD is transforming dozens of agencies, which offered all services, into smaller and with less banking offer.
“Caixa Geral de Depósitos is a very important financial entity in our banking system that obtained a profit of 1,291 million euros last year, but it also fulfills an important function which is to safeguard services to the population, including those in the territories of the interior, and It fulfills a function of territorial cohesion,” considered the socialist deputy.
For this reason, the PS questioned the Minister of Finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, to clarify if he was aware of this decision of the public bank and “sand was consulted or gave an opinion on this matter“.
The socialists, according to Nuno Fazenda, also want to know “if the local authorities where it is intended to close or reduce CGD banking services have been involved or consulted.”
“What is the position of the Government in relation to this issue of reduction of banking services in the interior and in the autonomous communities and what measures and steps will the Government adopt or has adopted to ensure the public interest and safeguard the needs of the populations of the interior territories and the autonomous communities,” the PS further asks.
The socialist deputy explained that it is “a question of territorial cohesion”, recalling the closures during the ‘troika’ period, and also afterwards, “of other public services, in particular the Post Office.”
“And now, in fact, all that remained was the reduction and closure of banking services at the public bank. That is why we are questioning the Minister of Finance, taking into account that he is the one who has direct political responsibility in relation to the CGD,” he said.
Nuno Fazenda stated that the bank’s own Works Committee “has also noted this degradation of the service” and stated that it is an issue that worries the socialists because “it could accentuate and aggravate the territorial imbalance” in the country.
“75% of the population is on the coast, 90% of tourist demand is on the coast, 85% of wealth is produced on the coast and, therefore, if we continue to close public services and in this case public banking services, It is an accentuation of what the territorial imbalance is.“, he pointed out.
According to the PS deputy, the signals given by the Government, both in its program and in the State Budget, are worrying, since they show that “the interior is not property.”
Source: Observadora
