WESTPAC announced a so-called “moratorium” on branch closures but limited that to just eight branches, including Robinvale.
But the bank was trying to con its customers, the media and members of the Senate committee investigating bank branch closures.
So much for Westpac’s moratorium. Last week, Westpac closed its doors in four locations across regional Australia: Coober Pedy and Tailem Bend in South Australia, Port Douglas in Queensland and Horsham in Victoria.
And by June, another nine branches in regional Australia will close.
Most of these closures were announced late last year but Westpac has conveniently forgotten those branches and the customers who rely on them in this fake moratorium.
Westpac only cared about profits and was intent on putting its greed before its obligation to provide banking services to the community.
This Westpac moratorium is a fabrication and an attempt to deceive the community about it care of customers.
If Westpac was serious about pausing its branch closures, it would have included all 42 metropolitan and regional branches around Australia, which the bank has announced will either close, or co-locate with another bank branch, between now and June.
Westpac is raking in billions of dollars in profits but it will leave thousands of customers in the regions without professional banking support from our members at a time when rising interest rates and cost of living pressures are hammering family budgets. It really is offensive.
For these major regional centres, it is so important that we have bank branches open to help people who have been through flood, bushfires and a pandemic before being hit by high inflation and rising interest rates.
I challenge Westpac’s chief executive Peter King to extend his moratorium on branch closures to all 42 banks in metropolitan and regional Australia.
Julia Angrisano
Finance Sector Union National Secretary
