On October 19, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) announced it would be closing its Macksville branch on November 25, raising alarm bells that other rural branches might also be on the chopping block.
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In 2015 Gloucester was affected by a rash of banking closures that saw the Westpac Banking Corporation close 147 rural in-store agencies.
The Westpac in-store agency at Garner’s Home Hardware was part of those closures, leaving no face to face banking outlet in town Westpac customers other than Australia Post.
This was followed by the National Australia Bank reducing their opening hours, closing between 12:30pm t0 1:30pm.
After hearing of Macksville’s impending closure, Fairfax Media asked the CBA if there were plans to close, reduce trading hours or alter the branch in Gloucester.
CBA did not answer the question, nor was the Gloucester branch referred to in any communication; they simply iterated the same statement given for the Macksville closure.
The statement said the decision was made after a review of the branch’s “footprint”, which indicated there had been “fewer and fewer transactions in branch as customers embrace alternative banking channels”.
A former staff member of the CBA advised Fairfax Media that staff are ‘incentivised’ for reducing over the counter transactions.
In light of this information, CBA was asked if they intended to close more regional branches.
No reply was forthcoming to the question.
At this stage, the future of regional branches and the face to face customer interaction associated with a country town, is unknown.
You can bank on that.