regional bank closures

Bendigo Bank closed its last remaining banking service in an Aboriginal community 27 days before celebrating the launch of its Aboriginal Reconciliation Action Plan. The Aurukun agency in far north Queensland was one of 27 to be closed in 2022-2023 under the eye of the bank’s now chief executive Richard Fennell when he was in charge of the consumer banking division.

Bendigo Bank has pulled out of fundraising partnerships with community groups that have been drumming up business for corporate branches since 2004 ... The bank told community groups however, that it had reviewed this part of its business and determined the contributions were “not sustainable” ... Bendigo Bank has announced a $514.6 million profit.

A group of 25 regional banks and supporters have banded together to advocate to keep face-to-face branches open in regional towns. The organisations have formed the Regional Banking Investment Alliance (RBIA) and want essential bank branch services such as cash handling and fraud advice to be supported by a community service obligation (CSO) on the wider Australian banking sector to share the cost burden. 

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has continued its assault on its community bank network, forcing the closure of 28 agencies run by community franchises. All the agencies are in regional Australia and 17 of the affected towns will be left with no banking services after the closures. Bendigo Bank made no mention that the agencies were all operated by the owners of community banks when making the announcement last week that it was “retiring” its agency network.

Bendigo Bank has hit the headlines for closing 10 branches shortly followed by an announcement it was getting rid of all of its regional agencies but there are another 90-odd Bendigo-branded banks that have been shut over the past five years it has managed to keep quiet. Many of these were community franchises that have been disappearing in the dozens, with both regional and metropolitan areas impacted.

In a move which calls into question its positioning as the “better big bank”, Bendigo Bank has announced the closure of 10 branches - five in regional communities where they are the last remaining bank branch ... Only a full reversal of this move will protect the 32 full time equivalent roles and the essential service they undertake in their local communities ... including Queenstown in Tasmania, home to the West Coast Wilderness Railway.

With the announcement that Bendigo Bank is closing two* of its regional branches at Yarram and Korumburra this week, it’s time to again call bull#%*t on the claims this corporation makes about the size of its branch network ... in deciding to close two of its 75 corporate branches across regional Australia, Bendigo Bank has not selected sites in locations that are well serviced by banks, it is pulling out of towns that rely on it as the only bank left.

One of the most important Federal Government inquiries into welfare issues specific to regional Australia in decades handed down its final report a year ago this week ... the recommendations are still languishing in a no-man’s-land of neither being accepted or rejected.