A major Australian bank has been accused of abandoning its customers following a decision to close every one of its branches as it transitions to become a completely digital business.
WA-based Bankwest is bringing the shutters down permanently at 45 locations by October while a further 15 in regional WA will be rebranded under the banner of its parent company, Commonwealth Bank (CBA).
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The move to “no longer operate a physical branch footprint” has been slammed by the Finance Sector Union (FSU), which said loyal customers who preferred to do their banking in person would be disadvantaged.
“This is an outrageous decision by Bankwest which has completely abandoned its customer base to cut costs and become a digital bank,” FSU national assistant secretary Jason Hall said.
“A range of Bankwest customers will be badly affected, including the most vulnerable in our community. The worst affected will be the elderly, First Nations customers, people whose first language is not English, and others who are not computer-literate.
“Maintaining a branch network costs money. But surely keeping faith with a loyal customer base is an important principle when those same customers and the banking fees they pay have been at the core of Bankwest’s profitability for many years.”
Bankwest, a 129-year-old business, argues that evolving customer trends are driving the change.
It said its branches average just 30 over-the-counter transactions daily, and that figure is halved in the regions.
Bankwest said fewer than two per cent of customers regularly visit a branch in person and close to 97 per cent of transactions are completed digitally.
Its focus now is on “simple and easy” banking and broker services, but rusted-on customers say they’ll consider switching institutions.
A client outside a branch on Wednesday said they were “pretty irritated”, while another said they avoided online transactions because “there are too many scammers”.
Bankwest has about 2000 branch regulars and said it would be extending an olive branch to explain the support on offer to customers, including potentially moving them over to CBA accounts.
“I understand this will be difficult news for some of our customers and Bankwest is introducing a range of support measures to help our customers who are regular branch users carefully through this transition,” Bankwest executive general manager Jason Chan said.
He said the move ensured a clear distinction between “CBA’s personal and business banking offering and national branch network, and Bankwest’s simple and easy digital and broker offering, focused on homeowners’ needs”.
For more than 350 branch staff now in limbo over the future of their jobs, Bankwest said it is committed to redeploying them into new roles.
Hall said the CBA and the digitised Bankwest must retain as many staff as possible.
“Our members who work in retail didn’t join the bank to work in a call centre,” he said.
“They prefer to work with customers face to face, and this is being taken away from them.”
