regional bank closures

Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Nationals WA Shane Love ... noted Bankwest’s announcement of a transition to a wholly online servicing model and closure of their branch network across the State. Bankwest, which is owned by CBA (Commonwealth Bank of Australia), has stated 15 regional branches of Bankwest will be converted to CBA branches.

After slashing NAB's regional branches by a third Ross McEwan is bailing before a senate inquiry into the closures reports. Miniscule savings at the cost of trashing the bank's reputation in a critical lending base. What will his legacy be?

Katter’s Australian Party Leader and Member for Traeger, Robbie Katter, said he is heartened by calls for the dilution of private corporate control over the provision of essential “public” services but that action could have been taken years ago had regional Queenslanders been listened to ... a “fifth pillar” in the banking sector was needed to curtail the market power of the so-called Big Four ...

The 2023 financial year was another significant one in the Bendigo Bank Narrandera branch (Narrandera District Investments) history of the company, both operationally and financially. Chairman Jack Langley said the year ended 2023 saw a substantial rise in margins due to increased rates.

Today’s Optus mass outage is a timely reminder as to why banks need to remain open in times of emergency, so people can access cash to pay for essentials, said Queensland LNP Senators Gerard Rennick and Matt Canavan. Senator Rennick said the outages affecting more than 10 million Australians brings the digital weakness into focus. “Unless people had cash on hand how many of our small businesses missed out on sales this morning?” Senator Rennick said.

Headlines around Australia last week screamed out about bank closures. They were triggered by the release of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s annual points of presence data that showed an 11 per cent fall in bank branches nationally in 12 months ... The media coverage of the data release last week only adds to the confusion.

The doors closed on Kyogle’s National Australia Bank on Thursday, October 19. The closures of bank branches across regional Australia has been happening with regularity in the past five years and continues with the Kyogle closure.

The chief executive of the Australian Banking Association Anna Bligh did not read a single submission to the 2021-2022 Regional Banking Taskforce she was a member of. This astonishing disclosure came out under questioning during a hearing of the Senate inquiry into regional bank closures ... CBA's Matt Comyn was the first to come before the senators and except for dropping the information that CBA will be making its Bankwest brand an entirely digital service he might have snuck through without a mention here.

Senators Matthew Canavan and Slade Brockman, have expressed their disgust in the cowardly decision of the National Australia Bank to close its Waroona branch just one week after a Senate inquiry on regional banking was in the region. NAB has announced that they will be closing their Waroona branch on 17 November this year, leaving the town without a bank.

People are not taking time off work every Friday during footy season to drive hundreds of kilometres to the next closest bank to get money to pay the players and run the bar for the fun of it. Or drawing on their annual leave to get the cash float for the local show. You don’t clock up more than 500km in two days trying to find a bank that is open to make a security deposit to see the country and you don’t place advertisements in the local paper for coin to provide change at the post office to make new friends.