The big four banks have been called on to immediately stop closing branches across rural Australia while a new investigation is launched.
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Nationals Victorian MP Anne Webster (Mallee) wants a moratorium on closures.
"The big banks need to justify why they are leaving their regional customers out in the cold," Dr Webster said.
The Senate inquiry was agreed to last week with support from the Greens, Coalition and Senators on the crossbench.
The Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee will conduct the inquiry.
The Regional Banking Taskforce established by the previous Coalition government in 2021 developed seven recommendations which banks say they hope to implement by the middle of this year.
Dr Webster said there has been 86 bank closures across Australia since the recommendations of the taskforce were tabled late last year.
This latest inquiry again wants to investigate the reasons for branch closures and their impacts on customers and regional communities.
LNP Senator Gerard Rennick (Qld) said he was concerned with the impact closing regional branches would have on local business and their inability to deposit cash.
"Banks have a social licence to provide banking services to all Australians regardless of their location. They should honour it," he said.
Senator Rennick said the Regional Banking Taskforce had laid the groundwork for this new inquiry.
He said the committee would ask bank chief executives to personally address the inquiry.
Dr Webster said Westpac recently announced it would shut its Robinvale branch, following ANZ advice it would do the same in the Murray River town later this year.
Cloncurry in Queensland is another losing its branch.
Junee in NSW's Riverina received national attention over the weekend for its fight to save its last bank, a CBA branch.
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She said the taskforce's recommendations to review and strengthen the Australian Banking Association's "branch closure protocol" and also implement "branch closure impact" assessments were due to be in place by mid-2023.
"These impact assessments should provide a transparent impact report for any closure of regional banks," she said.
The taskforce recommended the ABA to:
- Promote and support Bank@Post services
- Maintain access to cash
- Improve support for regional consumers experiencing vulnerability
- Continue to support and improve digital connectivity and literacy in regional areas
"There has been 86 bank closures since the recommendations were tabled," Dr Webster said.
"It seems the banks are eager to close down these regional branches before implementing the impact reports which they endorsed."
"Their customers deserve better, maybe it is time these customers took their business elsewhere to send these big banks a message."
Banks say more and more customers are taking their business online.
Populations in some rural towns have also diminished.
Banks have also said the coronavirus pandemic also accelerated the move of foot traffic away from branches.
There remains concerns about the desire of older customers to continue face-to-face banking and not being able to access surviving branches in larger rural centres.
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