"There are more than 1,000 parishes that do not have ATMs; they have no way to access money. Providing the conditions means creating, with SIBS and the Bank of Portugal, the capacity so that in each parish people can withdraw money," said Castro Almeida in a debate in the Assembly of the Republic, in Lisbon.

Application coming soon

The Minister said that, in some parishes, the project will move forward as early as June, and that the idea is to extend it to all parishes without ATMs.

For Castro Almeida, it is a "matter of elementary justice" for territories with fewer people, so that those who live there also have access to withdrawing cash.

Parish concerns

The lack of ATMs has been a concern regularly raised by the National Association of Parishes - ANFRE, which was even debated at the congress at the end of January. There, a motion was approved requesting attention to this issue.

There are parishes where residents have to travel dozens of kilometres to access an ATM.

Maintaining enough ATMs

When he took office as governor of the Bank of Portugal in October 2025, Álvaro Santos Pereira said the banking system must maintain sufficient ATMs across the country to ensure the population can easily access physical cash.

Digital payments

"Although the importance of digital payments has been increasing, we must ensure that cash remains easily accessible to all Portuguese people," he said.

In September 2025, Denária, an association that advocates the use of cash as a means of payment, criticised the "cash deserts" in Portugal for the lack of ATMs, noting that this mainly affects the most isolated and vulnerable groups.

The association cited data from the Bank of Portugal from 2022, according to which 1,276 parishes (41%) had no physical cash access point.

For the association, it is imperative to strengthen network coverage and ensure that all Portuguese citizens have the right to use cash.

At the end of 2025, there were 13,700 ATMs in Portugal, according to data from the Bank of Portugal.