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 their back’ on up to a million customers by closing down all its branches on Australia’s east coast, a fed-up senator said.

Customers on the east of the country hoping to do their banking in a brick and mortar branch now has to make a 4000km journey to to Western Australia, where the Commonwealth Bank subsidiary’s only four full-time branches remain.

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

The financial institution announced last year that all 14 of its branches outside of WA would be scrapped after usage of it’s online banking app surged 31 per cent. It also made the cost-cutting call to reduce trading hours at 29 rural branches in WA – with some only operating two days-a-week.

Senator Gerard Rennick, who grilled Bankwest representatives in the WA wheatbelt town of Beverley as part of a special sitting of a Senate committee, argues that digital-only 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 the mobile reception,’ he told Daily Mail Australia on Monday.

‘It means farmers have to drive further to the next branch. They are basically turning their back on providing services.

‘They are all doing it and it is getting harder and harder.’ 

In defending the cull of branches, Bankwest personal banking general manager Scott Spittles said in August it was part of the ‘evolution’ of the institution. 

‘We have a clear vision to be a simple, easy bank for current and future homeowners nationwide,’ he said.

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

Mr Spittles said digital transactions now account for around 97 per cent of all Bankwest transactions, while in-branch services have declined by 44 per cent in the past three years.

‘WA branches now average just 39 transactions a day, with that volume expected to almost halve to 22 a day as business customers, who account for almost half of branch transactions, transition away from Bankwest,’ he said. 

Senator Rennick said the banks were ‘taking the p*ss’ with such arguments and questioned the statistics.

‘They (banks) say 95 per cent of transactions are done online but they tell people if they want to get cash they can get it out of the ATM machine and that’s an online transaction,’ he said. 

‘There’s all these little odd job banking services, whether you want a credit card replaced, estate services, you want to change signatures that once the branches close you have to drive all the way to the next branch.’

He said the move would particularly hurt voluntary organisations that may need to get several people together to authorise a change of signatories on an account, as well as making life difficult for elderly people.

‘My old man he went down and paid off his credit care using Bank@Post and then he couldn’t use his credit card for a couple of weeks to clear the transit payment,’ he said. 

‘I would like to see a proper public bank as we used to have.’