Town halls joining forces to try and prevent loss of bank branches

Lluís Apesteguia, the mayor of Deya, called the meeting of mayors and deputy mayors on Monday. Apart from Deya, the town halls represented were Bunyola, Costitx, Esporles, Fornalutx, Lloret de Vistalegre, Mancor de la Vall, Montuiri and Soller.

They discussed action to be taken to ensure that the island's smallest municipalities are not left without bank branches. Soller isn't a small municipality like, for example, Deya or Fornalutx, but it has its own issues. Deputy mayor Carlos Darder explained that the town halls will be tackling two aspects - the disappearance of banks in small villages and bank mergers that will severely reduce the number of branches. He highlighted the concern over the elimination of branches in Soller and Puerto Soller because of the CaixaBank-Bankia merger. "This would cause long queues."

Antoni Salas, the mayor of Costitx and also the president of the Felib federation of town halls, has called a further meeting for this coming Monday at the Felib offices in Palma. The Spanish government delegate in the Balearics, Aina Calvo, has been invited to attend.