Outraged by the banks’ indifference to the elderly and their needs, former doctor Carlos San Juan launched a protest campaign. And he was listened to.
Retired doctor Carlos San Juan says he was hit twice by the pandemic. The first when he was banned from seeing children and grandchildren due to restrictive measures and the second when his bank allowed him to enter the branch in his area only for a serious reason and exclusively by appointment.
Now that restrictive measures are loosening, many Spanish banks are operating as if they were in a pandemic. The public service is by appointment and up to a maximum of 11. In addition, many Spanish retirees like San Juan are complaining about the few bank branches in their neighborhood.
According to ECB data, since the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008, more than 23,600 branches have closed in Spain. On the other hand, nowhere in the EU was there such a high density of branches as in Spain. More than 100,000 jobs were lost due to the banking crisis.
“We are old, but not stupid”
A few weeks ago, Carlos San Juan decided to take the initiative, not wanting to remain silent. He started by collecting signatures with a request that the banks remain open to the public until noon and even without an appointment, so that retirees can make withdrawals and pay bills. When the signature collection campaign “We are old but not stupid” was launched on Change.org, 500,000 people supported the 78-year-old former doctor’s demands. Even the governor of the Central Bank spoke with Carlos San Juan on the phone, while meetings with the Minister of Economy and representatives of financial institutions are scheduled for the next period.
He has been invited dozens of times on television to present his demands. “My problem is that I have Parking and I often press the wrong button at the ATM,” says the retiree, who has become famous in Spain. He says in the TV programs that call him that he often observes elderly people fighting with ATMs in front of the banks.
“I give a voice to my fellow human beings”
The Spanish statistics show that there are about 9.4 million people over 64 living in the country, which is about 25% of the population. At the same time many smaller towns and villages now have only ATMs and not branches. Customers are often forced to walk 30 miles or more to talk to a bank clerk. A recent poll by the Spanish Pension Fund Association shows that 40% of seniors have never used the internet.
Carlos San Juan has been a customer of Caixabank for 50 years, which has 20 million customers. It angers him that during the financial crisis the Spanish government supported the country’s largest bank today with 40 billion euros and the bank in turn leaves him and his wife to their fate.
For the 78-year-old retiree, it does not matter what will result from the meeting with the minister and the bank officials. He says that the most important thing for him is: “A 14-year-old girl called me and told me that when she reaches my age she wants to be like me, because I give a voice to my fellow human beings. I was very moved by this girl.”
Stephanie Miller, Madrid
Edited by Stefanos Georgakopoulos
Source: Deutsche Welle
Source: Capital
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