A REGIONAL Banking Taskforce has been established by the Federal Government to assess the impact of bank branch closures on regional communities.
A number of bank branches have closed in northern Victoria in recent years, in Boort, Kerang and Cohuna.
Operating hours at the Robinvale and Kerang Commonwealth Bank branches have also been cut.
The taskforce will bring rival banks and other stakeholders together to find solutions before it hears the impact on local businesses, industries and communities.
Member for Mallee Anne Webster said her office had been contacted by banking customers concerned about the banks’ move away from regional towns.
“It’s yet another front to living regionally — you start to lose access to services that are available in cities,” she said.
“We understand there is a thin workforce, we understand the reasons, but people living in more remote areas should be able to have the reasonable distance of service that everyone else has.”
Dr Webster said it was “fine to just go online or do telephone banking”, but reality painted a different picture.
“For older people who live in remote settings, that’s easier said than done,” she said.
“They’re not necessarily digital savvy and they need the support.
“I think banks — not like they’re making enough profit — need to be providing services to communities such as ours.”
Affected branch staff would operate the centres in the morning and switch to assisting contact centres in the afternoons, which reportedly received more than a million complex customer enquiries each month.
The Commonwealth Bank closed 53 branches between March 2020 and March 2021, while NAB partially closed 114 smaller regional branches in 2020, with staff opening branches in the mornings and moving to phone or online banking in the afternoon.
Dr Webster said farmers often had complex banking needs.
“If they are doing deals, however complex that might be, we know that often talking to someone is better than following instructions on a screen which becomes bewildering,” she said.
“We understand money is going to be the fundamental reason, whether it’s workforce, having enough people coming through the door.
“A lot of people are going online but there are are some areas where banks could be doing more.”
Minister for Regionalisation Bridget McKenzie said the taskforce would provide a platform to establish how the transformation within the banking industry, particularly branch closures, affected those living in the regions.
“Having access to bank branches is vital for every community, particularly for residents who are unable to use online services to conduct their banking,” she said.
“As we have heard, bank branch closures in the regions also affect the liveability of towns, and so I am pleased to announce this taskforce will be looking at how we can keep banking services in rural Australia.”
The Australian Banking Association (ABA) said it “stood ready” to assist the taskforce.
ABA chief executive officer Anna Bligh said the banking industry continued to provide banking support for regional and rural communities.
“Australian banks remain committed to providing banking services to every Australian, especially those in regional and remote areas,” Ms Bligh said.
“Despite more than 80 per cent of Australians preferring to do their everyday banking online, banks still have thousands of branches across the country, in addition to the banking services that banks pay to make available in 3500 Australia Post outlets.
“Recent APRA data shows that the overwhelming majority of bank branch closures in the past year have been in major cities, and not in regional areas.”
Ms Blight said where branches were closed, it was because customers no longer needed to do their banking face-to-face.
“As the world we live in continues to become more digitalised, the way customers want to do their banking is following the same trend,” she said.
A Commonwealth Bank spokesperson said: “We acknowledge the establishment of a Regional Banking Taskforce by the Morrison Government, and welcome the opportunity to work with local communities and other relevant organisations on solutions to continue supporting our regional customers.
“Our branches in regional Australia play an important role in delivering great service to our customers now and will into the future as we continue to maintain the largest bank branch network in Australia.”
The spokesperson confirmed a senior Commonwealth Bank representative would attend the taskforce’s first meeting this week.
