AT least five major banks have pulled out of Logan suburbs over the past two years as part of a national trend, prompting calls for government action.
President of the Beenleigh Yatala Chamber of Commerce, Kerrie Saverin says the removal of bank branches has made it tougher for local businesses to function.
“With more and more bank branches disappearing it’s definitely making things harder for the business community,” she said.
“A lot of small businesses rely on branches to cash in their change every week, because they can’t afford to hire a company like Chub to do it for them.
“It’s forcing these businesses to now use eftpos instead of cash and with eftpos comes more fees – which is less money in their pocket.”
In the last two years, Logan has seen the closure of the Commonwealth branch at Logan Central Plaza, Westpac at Loganholme, NAB and ANZ at Beenleigh and Heritage at Woodridge – with more closures on the horizon.
The shift has however seen a movement of people supporting their next-tier banks such as Bank of Queensland and Bendigo Bank.
Ms Saverin said the lack of branches means vulnerable people are more susceptible to banking scams.
“While most of us now use online banking, I don’t think we are there yet in terms going fully online,” she said.
“There are still a lot of people that need one-on-one contact, they need to know who they are talking to when it comes to their money, because money is an extremely important thing for all our livelihoods.
“It is becoming more difficult to bank, especially with all the text, email and phone call scams going around.
“People who are vulnerable and struggle with technology are already finding it hard to navigate – you don’t know who you can trust.”
Owner manager of BOQ Jimboomba branch, Aaron Todd said he’s not going anywhere.
“The demand for over-the-counter transactions in some areas has diminished, coupled with fixed costs like wages and rent increasing makes it less profitable to keep branches open,” he said.
But “successful banking to me is about identifying and fulfilling customer’s needs”.
“So, we allow people to call our branch directly and we always make sure we get to the call as soon as possible,” he said.
“I also make sure we have bank tellers available, because face-to-face interaction is still important and online banking doesn’t suit everybody.”
According to an independent study by banking writer Dale Webster, in 2021 regional Australia lost 113 bank branches from the Big Four banks: CBA, Westpac, ANZ and NAB.
So far this year, the number of Big Four branch closures stands at 70, along with 43 minor bank closures – putting the total number of bank branches closed since the start of 2021 at 226.
The National Finance Sector Union are calling on the Federal Government to inquire into the provision of local banking services.
Study: Banks deserting suburbs
