Seven more regional banks are expected to close this month, leaving regional communities to lose their only bank unless Westpac does not postpone their closure. 

Early this year, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) put a pause on closing down regional banks across Australia due to a Senate inquiry on the impact of shutting down financial institutions on regional communities. 

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Prior to this decision, the Junee Shire Council led a community campaign against the CBA’s decision to close its regional banks, forcing residents to travel to another region to make big transactions or access loan services. 

The CBA’s decision to postpone its bank closures, after a direct request from the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee, saved the people of Junee an 80km round trip to Wagga Wagga to find the next closest bank. 

However, NAB Retail Executive Krissie Jones announced this week that it will still continue with its bank closure despite the Senate Committee’s request to delay it. 

“NAB will work constructively with the Senate Committee Inquiry,” she said.  

“We will be continuing our branch reshaping process during the Committee’s deliberations in 2023, which will include closures, consolidations and new investments to meet our customers’ needs.” 

While Westpac announced that it will postpone eight bank closures across regions, it did not state that those scheduled for closure this month will be put on hold.  

This puts regional areas such as Coober Pedy and Tailem Bend at high risk as they will be severely impacted by the loss of local financial institutions. For Coober Pedy, residents would be forced to take a 1,080km round trip to Port Augusta just to find the nearest bank. 

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Robert Barwick, Research Director of the Australian Citizens Party which campaigned very hard for the inquiry, asked whether it was acceptable to Prime Minister Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers that the banks defy a Senate inquiry. 

“The bigger question is: given the government generously guarantees the Big Four banks, underwriting their mega-profits, will it allow them to defy this very important Senate inquiry, and condemn towns like Coober Pedy to lose their only bank tomorrow?” he said. 

“Certainly, the arrogance of NAB is making the case for the Citizens Party’s win-win solution for regions communities losing their essential banking services, which is to re-establish a government bank, like the original Commonwealth Bank, as a post office bank that can provide a full deposit, lending, payments and cash access banking services to every community in Australia, and force the Big Four banks to truly compete.” 

Research Director Barwick further stated that aside from face-to-face banking services, establishing a post office bank will also provide enough competition to force bigger banks to re-open their regional branches out of fear of losing their customers. 

“This is what happened in New Zealand in 2002 when the Helen Clark government established Kiwibank, their government post office bank. The response of NZ’s private banks, all owned by Australia’s Big Four banks, was to immediately announce a moratorium on branch closures,” he said. 

“Regional Australia today desperately needs that kind of real competition, where the banks compete on which can serve their customers the best, rather than which can get away with abandoning their customers the fastest.” 

Eliza Sayon

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Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.

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