Savings Banks in Spain
Savings banks (known as cajas de ahorro) are very common in Spain and apart from the Catalan La Caixa and Caja Madrid that are both present in most of the country, tend to be regional or provincial.
Savings banks also act as charitable institutions and invest part of their profits in social and cultural associations.
In Andalucia the main savings banks are Caja Rural, Caja Mar, Caja Sur and UniCaja (originally from the province of Malaga), La General (from Granada), Caja San Fernando (from Cadiz) and El Monte (from Seville and Cordoba).
Savings banks, although popular, are considerably less so than the clearing banks.
