Spanish banks have cut their workforce by 38% since 2008, double the European average

• EREs and early retirements mark the worst year for employment in banking

Spain has gone from having

in 2008 with a workforce of

to having, at the end of 2020,

This has caused, as reported by the CCOO on Tuesday, an overload of work for employees and poorer customer service.

Today the country has

than fourteen years ago and

, despite the fact that

and, predictably, the number of bank customers as well.

Despite the fact that the data is at the end of 2020, in

there has been the voluntary departure of another

3,572 from

6,452 from

, 2,935 from

, 3,405 from

and 1,513 from

, the union has denounced .

Between 2008 and 2020,

,

as much as those of

which today have 19.6% fewer employees.

"This process

-inhabitants to be served by each worker in the sector-, from

to

, well above the 186.5 in the Eurozone , and on the way to exceeding the figure of 300, if there is not a sufficient replacement rate," warned the organization led by

After the departures of 2021, the replacement rates stand at 7%, calculating the entry of only 1,300 new workers.

His report has been presented after Carlos, a 78-year-old man from Valencia, gained national fame in January after publishing on Change.org a collection of signatures to get face-to-face attention at banks.

The uproar was such that he even met with the first vice president, Nadia Calviño.

4,500 municipalities without branches

According to data released this Tuesday by the CCOO, the cutback in personnel in the sector has been parallel to the

since the country has gone from having

.

The communities in which there have been more closures are Catalonia, Castilla y León, Galicia and Asturias.

At the end of 2021, there are

in Spain -accommodating 3.5% of the population- in

"This reduction occurs at a time when it

both due to the allocation of resources that we are going to have to manage by the

and the associated funds that may be raised. And more so at a time when it seems that

due to the geostrategic situation and inflation, and there may be

at a time when investments are going to be needed for the digitization and transformation of the economy", explained the CCOO spokesman.

These branch closures and staff reduction have caused

in the country, also above the evolution of the Eurozone.

The lower number of personnel per number of inhabitants, the lower proximity -because there are fewer branches- and the fall in competition -because there is more concentration- have caused

to be

(the probabilities of granting loans), only surpassed by Greece and Cyprus.

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Know more

• CCOO

• Nadia Calvino

• CaixaBank