While it was difficult to find bank branches to visit in Amsterdam, it certainly wasn't a problem in Madrid. We went to the San Francisco de Sales neighborhood over lunchtime and counted nine branches in a half block radius alone!

As we came to learn over our two-day visit, the Spaniards love their branches. In fact, branch density in Madrid is more than four times greater than it is in Chicago and New York. However, you better not need to use the branch after your late Spanish lunch because you would be hard-pressed to find a branch open. All of the branches we saw closed at 2:00 or 2:15 p.m.

A couple of other things really struck us during our branch visits. For one, the branches typically were fairly small, averaging no more than 1500 square feet, with only one or two teller windows in addition to three or four sales desks. We were told by our local colleagues, and verified during our visits, that the average branch in Madrid only has four full-time employees, which would certainly help keep branch costs down.

Getting into the branch also was challenging in several locations. Some branches have what is called a secured entry vestibule, otherwise known as a "man trap," that prevents people from entering the branch with weapons. Scott had a hard time getting into one branch. After repeatedly taking things out of his pockets, he was finally able to get inside only after discovering that his eyeglasses were setting off the metal detector.

We went to lunch with our colleagues at 3 p.m. At the end of the meal, we saw something we haven't seen elsewhere. Our colleague paid the bill using his credit card and within one minute of making the payment, he got an SMS message on his cell phone with the transaction details. Apparently a number of banks offer this service to alert customers about ATM or debit/credit transactions over a certain amount. Wouldn't that be a nice service to have at home!

More on Madrid in our next posting …