“We are not going to [close agencies] and we are going to maintain the same number of agencies in 2025 and 2026”, said Paulo Macedo at a hearing at the Budget and Finance Committee.

The chief executive officer (CEO) of CGD is being heard in parliament about the banking services provided by CGD following criticism from several entities - the Workers' Commission, unions and also municipalities - about the reduction of services in some branches.

According to the CEO, what has been done at the public bank is to adapt the branches to technological evolution because “nobody wants Caixa to remain immobile, for all the others to modernise and Caixa not to”, and he added that in all branches there are workers “to support citizens who have more difficulty handling” banking transactions (even the most digitalised ones).

Paulo Macedo also considered that if in the 1980s and 1990s the big issue of inclusion in banking was geographic inclusion, today it is digital inclusion and said that CGD has adapted its counters but, at the same time, providing means to not leave customers behind.

“We are not going to neglect physical inclusion, but the priority is to provide people with the means for digital inclusion,” said Macedo.

The CEO of CGD stated that there is no degradation of service at CGD because otherwise it would not be a "leading bank" and growing in credit and deposits.

Following news about a reduction in services at CGD bank branches in the last months of 2024, deputies called several entities to parliament to clarify the situation.

Last week, in parliament, the CGD Workers' Committee said that the public bank is reducing the provision of banking services, especially in the interior and islands, and that the company is therefore failing to fulfil its public service mission.

According to CT, the number of CGD branch closures up until 2023 had a major impact on the public bank's reputation, so there was a paradigm shift with the bank's management, led by Paulo Macedo, opting to maintain branches but reducing the services provided (with more counters without cash desks) and reducing the number of workers (counters with one, two or three employees).

"We have not closed, but reduced, restricted, changed the way it operates," said the CT coordinator, Jorge Canadelo, to the deputies, considering that with the recent decisions the CGD administration is also undermining the cohesion of the country.

At the end of September, CGD had 6,227 employees in 512 branches. The public bank had profits of 1,369 million between January and September (40 percent more compared to the same period in 2023).