Major Aussie bank closes its final city branch leaving customers ‘devastated’

A major financial institution has ended more than a century of personalized services by closing its last metropolitan branch as it transforms into an exclusively digital entity.

The closure of the Bankwest branch in Mandurah Forum, a shopping center about an hour’s drive south of Perth’s CBD, is the latest of 28 branch closures in the city and its suburbs this year – and adds to the closure of all its interstate branches.

The closures follow the announcement last March by Bankwest’s owner, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), that the smaller institution would become a digital-only bank.

Formerly owned by the Western Australian government, Bankwest will convert its remaining 15 branches in regional WA into Commonwealth Bank branches in mid-December, but the parent company has given no guarantee they will remain open beyond 2026.

Bankwest chief executive Jason Chan said closing the network was a difficult but necessary decision to ensure the bank’s sustainability.

He said declining branch use by the bank’s 550,000 customers in WA meant the cost of opening them was no longer justified.

He said the branches were handling an average of only 30 over-the-counter transactions per day at metro branches, while regional centers were processing just 15 per day.

Closing branches was a cost-cutting measure for the Commonwealth Bank, which posted a net profit of $9.5 billion in the last financial year.

The end of face-to-face interactions brings to a close the branches’ operations since their incorporation in the state in 1895 as the Agricultural Bank of Western Australia.

“It’s very sad,” said Bankwest customer Lyn Yahoo Finance.

“This bank started out serving farmers before changing its name to Bankwest. Then CBA bought it. Mandurah has traditionally been a holiday and retirement area, so many old people. How devastating for their community.

“How dare they limit our access to our own money and their services, which should be widely available to us?

“My greatest concern is not for ourselves, but for our seniors, for whom it can be very difficult to adapt to the new technological ways, physically move, drive or travel long distances.”

Bankwest claimed over-the-counter transactions at its Mandurah branch fell by 30.6 per cent in the period to February this year, while the daily average was just 64 per cent.

The bank closed all its branches on the East Coast in 2022.

The closures follow Bankwest’s owner, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), announcing last March that the smaller institution would become a digital-only bank (pictured, CBA CEO Matt Comyn).

More than 2,100 bank branches closed in Australia in the six years between 2017 and 2023, according to the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority.

Westpac had the highest number of branch closures last year, at 167, while Commonwealth Bank closed 73 branches, ANZ closed 72 and NAB closed 63, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Lenders are defending branch closures as a necessary response to a changing customer base that now largely prefers digital services to physical banking.

But community concerns, especially in regional areas where customers are more reliant on branch services, led CBA boss Matt Comyn to declare a moratorium on his bank’s branch closures until at least 2026.

Westpac later followed suit, but ANZ and NAB made no similar commitment.

ANZ recently faced angry backlash from locals after announcing the closure of its Katoomba branch in the Blue Mountains region of NSW.

The bank had pledged in June not to close regional branches for three years in exchange for federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ approval for the takeover of Suncorp Bank.

ANZ defended the decision, saying the closure does not breach its commitment because Katoomba is ‘classified as a major city location by the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Australian Statistical Geography Standard’.

But outraged locals claimed the bank was looking for a ‘loophole’ to rid them of their branch from October 23.