Village battles bank not to close cash dispenser

One tiny withdrawal at a time, Spezet village in France's rural Brittany region is battling to save its cash dispenser from bank cost-cutting in the face of the global financial crisis.

"We couldn't care less if it's a Credit Agricole cash dispenser or some other. What we want is a dispenser: it's a question of public utility," said retiree Youhenn Le Fur, a member of Spezet's Cash Dispenser Defence Committee.

"We hope we'll keep it," added mayor Gilbert Nigen. "Everyone's aware that the dispenser is indispensable. There are lots of shops in Spezet, it's disappearance would be a real problem."

Spezet (1,915 inhabitants) used to have a branch of Credit Agricole bank, which first cut its opening hours, then shut down completely, although its ageing cash machine still functions.

Without it, villagers, many of them elderly, would have to travel by car to the town of Chateaulin, 32 km away, to withdraw cash.

A village request for a cash machine at the local post office, itself previously threatened with closure, was rejected. But the unbowed villagers formed a defence committee and took the battle to the bank itself.

Demonstrations outside a bank in nearby town Carhaix, where inhabitants recently succeeded in keeping their threatened rural hospital alive, forced Credit Agricole to grant the cash machine a stay of execution.

"We proposed to the village either to split the costs of the cash machine 50-50 or, after discussions, to require 30,000 withdrawals a year," said Credit Agricole's network manager Charles Le Durant.

An unknown number of villagers have bank cards, but those who do are now withdrawing at least three times a week -- getting small amounts of 20 or 30 euros at a time in order to reach the annual target.

Credit Agricole's Le Durant has been tallying withdrawals since mid-2011 and said the target of 30,000 withdrawals should be reached by May or June.

"The population's passion for this service means the operation is set to succeed," he admitted.