Spain’s banks have spent years nudging customers toward apps, and the pressure falls hardest on the over-65s. Three separate layers of protection now apply, and they are routinely confused: a voluntary industry protocol signed in 2022, a customer service law in force since late December 2025, and the Banco de España’s good-practice criteria for resolving complaints. Each carries a different legal weight, and knowing which one to invoke is the difference between a polite refusal at the counter and a written answer from the bank.
- Voluntary protocol: Banks committed to extended cashier hours, priority service and free phone support for over-65s and people with a recognised disability of 33% or more.
- Binding law: Ley 10/2025, effective 28 December 2025, requires personalised customer service, a route to a human operator and complaint resolution within one month.
- Escalation path: A written complaint to the bank is mandatory before the Banco de España will accept a case, with strict deadlines on both sides.
Can a bank force you to do everything online?
Not overnight. Under the Banco de España’s compendium of good banking practices, updated in April 2026, an entity that wants to move cashier services exclusively to ATMs or automated channels must either have written that into the contract or notify the customer individually at least two months in advance, so they can decide whether to remain a client.
What a bank cannot do is charge a fee for withdrawing cash at the counter from anyone over 65 or with a recognised disability of 33% or more. The same document confirms that, following the reform of Real Decreto-ley 8/2023, such a commission is prohibited for both groups.
The uncomfortable nuance is that no regulation obliges a bank to keep a counter open for everyone. What exists is a web of commitments and obligations that, used properly, gives customers considerable leverage.
What the industry promised in 2022
On 21 February 2022, the banking associations AEB, CECA and Unacc signed an updated strategic protocol, with the government and the Banco de España governor present. The consolidated document sets out, for people over 65 and people with disabilities:
- Extended cashier hours of at least 9:00 to 14:00, with personalised attention and at least one staff member per branch assigned to those duties.
- Priority service in branches during busy periods, plus a priority channel.
- Preferential telephone support at no extra cost and with a human operator; for customers served without a branch, at least from 9:00 to 18:00.
- Faulty ATMs repaired within two working days, with notice of the nearest alternative machine.
- A maximum of six months to implement the measures.
Is it being met? According to the industry’s own progress report published in July 2024 with data to the end of 2023, 81% of branches offered the extended hours, 93% of ATMs had been adapted, and 2.4 million people over 65 had received personalised telephone support. These are figures the banks publish themselves, and a 2022 government note tasked the Banco de España with producing an annual monitoring report.
The limit is obvious: this is a voluntary commitment, not a law. But it has a practical consequence that few customers know about, and it sits at the heart of the complaints process.
What Ley 10/2025 changes
Ley 10/2025, in force since 28 December 2025, turns part of what was voluntary into an obligation, though it focuses on the customer service function that handles complaints and claims. It defines elderly people as those aged 65 or over and requires banks to:
- Offer in-person, telephone or digital channels under a principle of personalised service that accounts for age, disability, place of residence and digital skills.
- Never use automated menus as the only means of attention, and always allow a request for a human operator.
- Ensure the phone line costs no more than a standard call to a landline or mobile.
- Provide specific training to staff serving older customers.
- Resolve complaints within one month.
Companies have twelve months from entry into force to adapt, so the window closes at the end of December 2026. The law does not guarantee a counter, but it does prevent a bank from hiding behind an automated menu when a customer has a problem, which is precisely what older customers complain about most.
A phone line staffed by a person also carries a security benefit: if someone calls claiming to be from the bank, hanging up and dialling the official number yourself is the simplest defence.
How to complain, step by step
The process has two stages, and the first is mandatory, as the Banco de España’s customer portal explains:
- Complain in writing to the bank, to its customer service department or its client ombudsman. By law the complaint can be filed at any branch, through the app or by the email address the bank must provide; a phone call is not accepted as a formal claim. Include your name, ID number, the reason and the branch where the incident occurred.
- Wait for the answer: 15 working days for matters relating to a payment service and one month for everything else, for consumers.
- If there is no reply or the bank rejects the claim, go to the Banco de España, through its electronic office, in writing to its Department of Entity Conduct (calle Alcalá 48, 28014 Madrid) or at any of its branches, attaching a copy of the earlier complaint.
Two deadlines are worth noting: the Banco de España will not accept a case if a year has passed since the complaint to the bank, nor if more than five years have elapsed since the events without a prior complaint.
The strongest argument is this: the Banco de España considers it contrary to good practice for a bank to fail to explain why it could not apply the protocol’s measures, such as the 9:00 to 14:00 hours or the in-branch support staff member. A voluntary commitment thus becomes the yardstick. Citing the protocol and the specific service that was refused forces the bank to justify itself in writing.
The system is imperfect. Access to a counter still depends on each entity’s goodwill, and compliance figures come from the industry’s own associations. Yet the most common failure is not a lack of rights but a failure to use them: many older customers give up at the desk when a written complaint citing the protocol and Ley 10/2025 would compel a formal response. It takes ten minutes, and if the answer is inadequate, the Banco de España sits on the other side.