Do you have a story to tell about regional bank closures?
Have you been affected by bank closures in your hometown?
Bank branches have been shutting down at an alarming rate, especially in rural areas and consumer group CHOICE is calling for people across Australia to share their stories about regional banking.
“Many Australians live in a regional area and even more people have loved ones who live in and rely on the regions. It’s essential that people can access banking services in the bush,” says CHOICE banking campaigner Patrick Veyret.
“The government has established a taskforce to assess the impact of bank branch closures on regional communities. CHOICE is writing a submission that will call for fair access to banking services for everyone. As part of this, we want to include real stories from people affected by or worried about access to banking services.
“Since June 2017, there have been over 500 bank branch closures in regional Australia. A branch closure can be devastating for the local community. It may mean that you have to drive hours to access a bank branch or that the only ATM in town is a private one with a large fee to withdraw cash.
“We want to show the Federal Government why communities care about fair access to banks and ATMs in the regions.
“As the shift to online banking accelerates, we need to ensure nobody is left behind. The government is going to hear from the big four banks, so we need to ensure they hear from communities and consumers impacted by their decisions to close branches and remove ATMs.”
CHOICE is asking for people to share their story about regional banking here: www.choice.com.au/regionalbanking
CHOICE will be presenting consumer stories to the Regional Banking Taskforce.
Have you been affected by bank closures in your hometown?
We used to have 5 banks in our suburb, now we have none. It's inconvenient as we need to travel to make deposits or transactions that can't be done online or at an ATM. Banks used to be a service organisation, now they seem to want bigger profits and that means selling off buildings and reducing staff. CEO's are paid on performance and that means that us, the public, are inconvenienced to ensure a bonus for the CEO. Banks have the attitude that people need banks so they will travel to where the bank is. Sadly, banks are not breaking any laws and will continue to do as they please. I can't see that any legislation can be enacted to stop them.