Bank branches are quickly disappearing across Australia and it’s leaving many without access to cash. (Source: NCA NewsWire/David Crosling/Getty)
New data has revealed how access to cash is becoming increasingly difficult to come by in Australia. The country’s prudential supervisor has released figures showing how many bank branches and Australia Post sites have closed in the last financial year, as well as how many ATMs have disappeared from our streets.
There are now 3,205 branches dotted across the country, which is 155 fewer than in 2023-24, and nearly 2,500 fewer than in 2016-17. Queenstown, a town in regional Tasmania, recently lost its last bank branch and residents now have to do a four-hour round trip to get their banking needs done.
Shane Pitt, the mayor of West Coast Council, which encompasses Queenstown, told Yahoo Finance these decisions from bank executives have a huge impact on everyday Aussies.
“It’s disappointing that these things happen,” he lamented.
“We’d like to see a lot more people moving into our community. But if they can’t sit down with a bank manager and talk through a bank home loan or something like that, well, we’re not going to get these people coming.”
When bank branches disappear, residents can rely on ATMs and Australia Post’s Bank@Post service to withdraw money.
But even those outlets are drying up.
According to the data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) released on Thursday, there are 62 fewer Australia Post spots across the country now, compared to last financial year, at 3,365 in total.
ATMs linked to banks and credit unions also fell from 5,476 to 5,143, which is a decrease of 333 machines.
Back in 2016-17, there were 13,814 ATMs and 3,578 Bank@Post locations.
APRA also showed “other face-to-face” banking services fell from 773 to 748 in the last financial year.
This trend of closing down access to financial services is placing a massive burden on the locations still operating.
When Bendigo Bank shut its branch in Queenstown late late month, residents turned their focus to their local Australia Post store.
But resident Janet Lay said in the last few weeks, the Bank@Post service had been struggling to keep up with the added demand and had even run out of cash twice.
“It was too late for them to get more money, which had a knock-on effect of people not having money for the weekend and businesses being short with their floats for the weekend,” she told Yahoo Finance.
“It’s a great service and lovely people, but it cannot meet the demands of the town’s banking requirements.”
In the last financial year, 126 branches shut across the major cities of the country, which made up the bulk of the closures.
Thirteen branches were permanently closed in inner regional areas, 11 were in outer regional areas, four were in remote areas, and one was in a very remote area.
In 2016-17, there were 75 branches in very remote pockets of Australia, but now there are just 38.
These are the residents who typically suffer the most as the next closest bank could be many hours away.
“The shift to digital banking is well and truly underway, but banks, government and regulators still need to work together to make sure innovation doesn’t come at the expense of inclusion,” Canstar’s director of data and insights Sally Tindall said.
“As banking goes increasingly digital, there’s no doubt more customers are happy to tap, click, transfer and apply online instead of queueing at a branch. The challenge for banks is making sure no one is left behind in this shift.”
Tom Price, a town in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, lost its last remaining bank branch in 2022, and people were faced with a 700-kilometre round-trip to get to their nearest bank in Karratha.
While many Aussies use their cards, smartphones or watches to pay for items, the technology hasn’t been adopted as much in remote parts of the country.
Aaron Newman is the spokesperson for the newly-formed Regional Banking Investment Alliance (RBIA) and he told Yahoo Finance reception isn’t nearly as good compared to metro areas and many people still prefer to use cash.
Aussies in regional areas are fed up with bank branch closures, but a new alliance will lobby on their behalf to make this a thing of the past. Aaron Newman (right) said communities could be wiped out if this trend continues. (Source: 9News/Supplied)
He added that closing down a branch can quickly start a domino effect that could wipe out whole towns in the future.
“The local butcher or bakery often needs the ability to bank their cash,” he said.
“If there’s no bank in town, it makes it much more difficult for those businesses to operate. This erodes the willingness of small business owners to continue to operate if they don’t have access to the banking services they need to run their business.”
Commonwealth Bank (CBA), ANZ, NAB, and Westpac have signed a commitment to not close any more regional branches until at least 2027.
But concerns are mounting on what will happen once that deal ends.
There’s no universal reason behind this trend, as every branch will have its own struggles.
But Aussies haven’t been using them nearly as much as they did several decades ago and that’s because a lot of services can now be found online or on the bank’s app.
If no one is using the branch, it can be a tough business case to keep it open.
ANZ told Yahoo Finance that transactions in its branches across the country had halved between 2019-2024, and only 1 per cent of transactions were done over-the-counter.
Commonwealth Bank (CBA) revealed last year that average monthly ATM withdrawals had plummeted 51 per cent since 2019, while digital payments had skyrocketed.
The Australian Banking Association (ABA) backed up this sentiment, saying 99 per cent of banking transactions now take place digitally.
“Banks remain focused on ensuring all customers can access the banking services they need, regardless of where they live and in ways that work best for them,” ABA CEO Simon Birmingham said.
“This report doesn’t provide a full picture of the way Australians bank today as customers interact with their bank more than ever before thanks to the ease and convenience of digital banking.”
But Pitt told Yahoo Finance that these closures tend to affect the people who don’t know how or can’t access online services.
“We’ve got a lot of elderly people in our community that rely on that face-to-face banking to assist with their finances, so it’s certainly going to be an issue,” he said.
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