“Deaf” Bankers Called To Account!

The Commonwealth Bank subsidiary Bankwest, the 130-year-old former Bank of Western Australia bank announced last Wednesday that it was moving to become a digital-only bank and would close 45 locations in the state. The 45 Bankwest branches that have been earmarked for closure will close their doors by October this year. There are 28 locations in Perth and 17 in regional WA. A further 15 branches will be rebranded under the Commonwealth Bank banner and are expected to finish their transformation by the end of the year.

Yes, this is the same CBA whose CEO Mat Comyn on 20th September 2023 in a statement to the Senate Inquiry into regional branch closures promised not to close more branches until at least 2026, even though they specifically excluded Bankwest from their statement, while saying “we recognise the unique and important contribution that regional Australia makes to our country”. “Our decision to pause regional branch closures is also predicated on customers and communities valuing our decision to stay”.

Committee member Senator Richard Colbeck said the Senate committee has been hearing plenty of people raising concerns about the vital banking services being lost.

“Every week in our hearings we hear from local communities how important these essential services are and how their communities are affected, yet those who are given a license to provide those services, the so-called service sector, continuously ignore those pleas and withdraw services – it is as though their ears were painted on,” he said.

http://www.martinnorth.com/

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Gotcha! More Big Bank BS…

In evidence given in Parliament this week we had confirmation that at least NAB, one of Australia’s big four banks, is using partial interaction statistics to falsely justify their programme of Regional Branch closures. This is the data which is parroted by the Banking Association spokesperson to justify the unjustifiable.

In the light of this, Dale Webster, The Regional Journalist, and I (remember we got the Inquiry up in the first place!) have written to the Senate Inquiry on closures today asking for an audit of all statistics being used by the banks to justify their closure plans.

Worth also reflecting on CBA’s conditional 3 year freeze on closures, and Westpac’s pull back.

Once again, we shine a spotlight on disgraceful behaviour as banks continue to suck the life blood from so many regional towns in the interests of shareholder returns. This must change!

http://www.martinnorth.com/

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More Digital Banking BS…

We look at the latest Senate hearings on Regional Branch closures, and discuss the continued misdirection coming from the cost-cutting banks – justified – so called – by the migration to digital banking.

But as discussed during the hearings, the banks do not want to talk about what they are doing, and a peoples bank is required to offer a real alternative.

http://www.martinnorth.com/

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CBA Breaks The Pledge To Pause Regional Bank Closures!

Dale Webster at The Regional has caught CBA out, as despite their promise not to close regional branches while the Senate Inequity is running, they are, by carefully defining down “Regional” to a very narrow definition, conveniently leveraging the ABS definitions, despite elsewhere calling these same regions Regional.

https://www.theregional.com.au/post/commonwealth-breaks-pledge-to-pause-regional-bank-closures

The Senate needs to hold CBA to account here. Write to your Senator, and also CBA management. This is plainly not acceptable nor within the spirit of their earlier statement! Well done Dale!

http://www.martinnorth.com/

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Regional Communities Are Being Impoverished By Bank Closures!

More from Dale Webster of The Regional on the important issue of bank branch closures. She calls out the political inaction so far, including from our Treasurer and Finance Minister, who wins “porky of the year!”

http://www.martinnorth.com/

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The Cruel Trick: An Essay In Corporate Power And Corruption!

How is it that commercial interests can gain control of an important Government inquiry? This is the excellent question posed by Dale Webster at The Regional. The Regional Banking Taskforce was, she says, stacked by bankers, and its outcomes were pretty much biased from day one.

The current Government are also culpable.

We need a proper inquiry in Regional Banking services, as Dale and I highlighted in our recent joint letter to the Senate. Please get behind it!

Our submission is available to view here and download : https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/loss-of-in-person-banking-letter-to-rarat-committee/

And a list of Senators by state is available here: https://citizensparty.org.au/aus-senate

If you care about the economic future of our regional towns and suburbs, then please contact your local Senators and tell them that they should support the initiative, ideally over the next few days, so as to create maximum impact in the final sitting week of the year.

The Regional: https://www.theregional.com.au/

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The Battle For The Commercial Heart Of Coober Pedy

Westpac is planning to remove the final branch from Opal Regional Centre Coober Pedy. The next branch is 440 kms away.

Senator Rennick made a statement on this in the Senate yesterday. And after a town meeting on Monday, it was clear this decision would adversely hit the town commercially, socially and from a mental health perspective.

The Advertiser ran an article on the closure, which may not yet be a done deal.

So, if you care about this issue, I suggest contacting the SA Premier Peter Malinauskas premier@sa.gov.au https://www.dpc.sa.gov.au/the-premier and Westpac CEO Peter King https://www.westpac.com.au/about-westpac/westpac-group/executive-team/ and John McFarlane Chairman and Independent Non-executive Director https://www.westpac.com.au/about-westpac/westpac-group/board-of-directors/
https://banking.westpac.com.au/olfmu/eforms/ConsumerFeedback/#/welcome

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Local Communities Strangled By Loss Of In-Person Banking – And What You Can Do About It!

We (Dale Webster and I) have written to the Senate Standing Committee on Regional and Rural Affairs and Transport about the economic fallout from the removal of in person banking services across Australia. Today I discuss this with Robbie Barwick from The Australian Citizens Party and the need to lobby Senate members on this important issue.

Our submission is available to view here and download : https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/loss-of-in-person-banking-letter-to-rarat-committee/

And a list of Senators by state is available here: https://citizensparty.org.au/aus-senate

If you care about the economic future of our regional towns and suburbs, then please contact your local Senators and tell them that they should support the initiative, ideally over the next few days, so as to create maximum impact in the final sitting weeks of the year.

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Why We Should Care About Bank Branch Closures; And What We Can Do About It!

We look at the latest bank branch closures, which are accelerating, thanks to Dale Webster’s analysis at The Regional.

https://www.theregional.com.au/

She recently published an open letter to The Attorney General Mark Dreyfus about the scandal of APRA’s Points of Presence Database.

https://www.theregional.com.au/post/open-letter-to-the-attorney-general-mark-dreyfus

And we discuss an alternative to the Major Banks who are closing outlets to secure profits for shareholders – the Customer Owned Banks. There are nearly 60 across the country focused on their members (customers) offering lower risk, more competitive banking services, including local branches.

https://www.customerownedbanking.asn.au/

You can find a list of local members here: https://www.customerownedbanking.asn.au/about-coba/list-of-our-members

So, I recommend switching to these community banks, away from the Majors. Funnily enough often the COBA banks offer better rates, and service than the others, and have the highest customer satisfaction!

Finally, digital is fine until the power goes out, and cash is still needed to maintain viable and dynamic local communities!

The latest edition of our finance and property news digest with a distinctively Australian flavour.

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APRA And The Mystery Of The Disappearing Branches!

AUSTRALIA’S banking regulator APRA is picking and choosing which banks it is allowing to get away with breaking the law by misreporting whether their sites offer cash service provided by a teller according to an important article in The Regional. Kudos once again to Dale Webster for highlighting this important issue.

Errors in hundreds of minor and foreign bank sites included in the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s points of presence data for years, even decades, have been corrected over the past 17 months after being exposed by The Regional in May 2021.

https://www.theregional.com.au/post/regulator-s-bank-data-inconsistencies-not-adding-up

https://www.theregional.com.au/post/apra-s-clean-up-of-bank-data-errors-leaves-statistics-in-chaos

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