The deputies of the Budget Commission approved this Wednesday the requests of the PCP and PS for a hearing with the executive president of Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD), Paulo Macedo, on the reduction of banking services nationwide.
According to a parliamentary source, both requests were approved unanimously.
Deputies want to question the executive management of the public bank about Recent decisions involving the reduction of banking services. both in mainland Portugal and in the archipelagos of Azores and Madeira.
Público reported last week, in a headline, that the CGD “reduces services in the interior and the islands” transforming dozens of agencies that until now offered all services (that is, withdrawal and deposit of money over the counter) into smaller spaces and with fewer services.
On October 3, Lusa had reported a statement from the bank’s Workers’ Committee (CT) in which it denounced what it considered a “non-compliance” by CGD with its “duty of banking public service.”
In statements to Lusa, the president of the CT of the CGD, Jorge Canadelo, stated that this problem occurs, above all, in the agencies in the interior of mainland Portugal and on the islands and that this is done at the expense of the company’s sustainability. in the future. and without any “critical vision” of the guardianship, the Government.
Questioned by Lusa, official source from the public bank stated that “it is completely false that CGD is reducing servicesespecially in the interior or on the islands” and that “only in manifest bad faith can the investment of more than 70 million euros that Caixa is making in its extensive network of offices be understood as a reduction in services, when it is part of a plan of digital transformation that aims to serve its customers more and better wherever they are.”
According to the CGD, the The creation of new generation agencies “leaves no one behind” and significantly increases its customer service capacity, particularly in terms of cash availability”
CGD also stated that CGD will not remain “stuck in time, clinging to a past that no longer exists” and that the transformation plans aim to “ensure the future today.”
The reduction of banking services by the CGD generated challenges from mayors and local authorities.
The consumer protection association Deco considered, last week, that banking exclusion is increasing and that there are populations in the interior of the country, especially older ones, who have less and less access to banking services.
“This stand is no longer for older people. Clearly there are populations in the interior of the country that are being abandoned by the banks. This has gotten worse” since the study carried out by Deco in 2022, economist Nuno Rico, from Deco, told Lusa.
Source: Observadora
