Bankwest: How one of Australia’s top banks now has ZERO branches on the east coast – instead suggesting customers do their business 4000km away

Bankwest is turning its back on “up to a million customers” by closing all its branches on Australia’s east coast, a fed-up senator said.

Customers in the east of the country who want to do their banking in a brick and mortar branch now have to travel 4,000 km to Western Australia, where the Commonwealth Bank’s subsidiary’s only four full-time branches remain.

Bankwest’s own ‘find your nearest branch’ search function on its website even alerts customers in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania that their nearest branch is in Perth.

The financial institution announced last year that it would be scrapping all 14 branches outside of WA after usage of its online banking app increased by 31 percent. It also made the cost-cutting call to cut trading hours at 29 Washington branches nationwide, some of which operated only two days a week.

Senator Gerard Rennick, who interviewed Bankwest representatives in the U.S. wheat belt city of Beverley at a special meeting of a Senate Judiciary Committee, argues that digital banking does not provide the same services as a branch.

“Farmers and regional customers don’t always get wireless and they don’t always get mobile reception,” he told Daily Mail Australia on Monday.

‘It means that farmers have to drive on to the next branch. They actually turn their backs on providing services.

“They’re all doing it and it’s getting harder and harder.”

Scott Spittles, general manager of personal banking at Bankwest, defended the branch cuts in August, saying in August that it was part of the institution’s “evolution.”

“We have a clear vision to be a simple, easy bank for current and prospective homeowners across the country,” he said.

“I understand these changes will cause some inconvenience, but we are seeing more and more branches become increasingly unsustainable to operate as customer banking preferences shift to digital options.”

Mr Spittles said digital transactions now make up about 97 percent of all transactions at Bankwest, while branch services have declined by 44 percent over the past three years.

WA branches now average just 39 transactions per day, and that volume is expected to nearly halve to 22 per day as corporate customers, who account for nearly half of branch transactions, make the switch from Bankwest. he.

Senator Rennick said that the banks “took the plague” with such arguments and questioned the statistics.

“They (banks) say that 95 percent of transactions are done online, but they tell people if they want cash, they can get it from the ATM and that’s an online transaction,” he said.

“There are all sorts of small banking matters, whether you want a credit card replaced, real estate services, you want to change signatures and when the branches close, you have to drive all the way to the next branch.”

He said the move would particularly hurt voluntary organizations that may need to get several people together to approve a change of signers on a bill, and make life difficult for the elderly.

“My old man, he went down and paid his credit concern with Bank@Post and then he couldn’t use his credit card for a few weeks to clear the transit payment,” he said.

“I’d like to see a real public bank like we used to have.”