Significant Reduction in Banking Deserts Across the Dominican Republic

• Between 2020 and 2024, the number of municipalities in the Dominican Republic classified as “banking deserts”, areas without branches, ATMs, or bank subagents, decreased from eleven to just one, according to the Banking Deserts study published by the Superintendency of Banks (SB).
• The study highlights that the expansion of banking access points (PAB) in 2023 aligns with a nine-year trend, reducing banking deserts from 20 in 2015 to two by the end of 2023. According to the report, Los Cacaos in San Cristóbal is now the only area in the country where residents must travel to another district to access banking services.
• In 2023, in addition to Los Cacaos, the Cristóbal municipality in the Independencia province was also a banking desert. However, in the first quarter of 2024, Banco del Reserva opened the first PAB in Cristóbal, eliminating its status as a banking desert.
• From 2015 to 2023, the estimated population without access to PAB decreased dramatically from 128,906 to just 12,789 people, representing a 90% reduction. By the end of 2023, ATMs were the most prevalent banking access point nationwide, with 3,528 ATMs (48.4% of the total), followed by 2,070 bank subagents (28.4%), and 1,692 branches (23.2%), amounting to a total of 7,290 PAB.

 (Source: Dominican Today)