The day I realised my bank had abandoned us

When my local bank vanished, it wasn't just an inconvenience. It felt like another sign that regional Australia had been forgotten. Now the major banks want to win us back with shared banking hubs. But is the plan a real fix or a hollow gesture?

About 25 years ago I swapped Sydney for the Upper Hunter Valley. The upsides are plentiful. A strong sense of community, less hustle and bustle, and vastly more affordable property prices.

Of course, there are downsides.

My nearest bank branch is a 45-minute drive away.

As a devotee of online banking, this is rarely an issue.

But there have been occasions when regional branch closures have proven costly and frustrating.

Several years ago, my (then) 16-year-old son was keen to take advantage of a St George promotion that saw new customers receive a $50 bonus deposit.

Fifty bucks is a lot when you're 16.

So, we made the 45-kilometre trek to our nearest major centre, where I recalled a St George Bank being located. What we found was a vacant office - the all-too common story of a branch closure.

Determined to score that $50 freebie, we checked the St George website, which showed a branch at the next big town, another hour's drive away.

Alas, we were met with the same 'was here, not here anymore' vibe. The St George sign was still above the entrance but the space was empty with a 'To Let' sign in the window.

Along with a waste of time and petrol, the whole pointless exercise spoke volumes about the bank's attitude towards regional customers. It hadn't even bothered to update its branch listings.

My son eventually opened an NAB account. The irony is that he is now completing a law degree, and will undoubtedly be courted by the major banks when he applies for a home loan at some future date.

Others will not be so lucky.

And that's where branch closures stop being an inconvenience and become a community problem.

The regional pensioner who isn't comfortable banking online, the social security recipient who can't afford to drive long distances to visit a branch, or the farmer busy with harvest who doesn't have a spare couple of hours for the round-trip into town - these are just some of the regional Australians who have to cop it sweet when regional branches shut their doors.

And plenty have closed for good.

The latest 'point of presence' data from bank regulator APRA, shows that between mid-2017 and June 2026, 901 bank branches were closed across regional and remote Australia - a decline of 38%.

The banks' plan to win regional Australia back

Westpac has paused regional branch closures until 2030. The Commonwealth Bank recently announced a similar moratorium.

However, in a new move, the Australian Banking Association (ABA) has lodged a proposal with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, that could see the major banks pool resources to set up shared regional banking 'hubs'.

These hubs, which may be located in council offices, libraries, Australia Post outlets, or operate out of modular 'bank in a box' units, could assist customers with what the ABA says are "basic banking needs".

In what may be unintended bush humour, the ABA cites an example of basic needs as "assisting with navigating online banking apps". That's despite the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman saying poor coverage continues to be a common source of complaints among regional and remote Australians.

For complex banking requirements, the ABA is proposing staff at these shared hubs would help connect customers with their bank through telephone or video banking services. It's expected that staff would not advise on, or be able to sell, any bank products.

'We deserted them because they deserted us'

So, what do country folk think of the idea?

To find out, I ran a straw poll of locals, who uniformly met the hub proposal with a 'meh' response.

There's a good reason for this. Almost everyone I spoke to had simply moved on.

As the big banks closed their branches, townspeople took their business to the one bank that hadn't deserted town - Regional Australia Bank.

Across New South Wales, Regional Australia Bank has 38 branches, often in communities like my own, where the population is less than 2,000.

Elsewhere in Australia, other small member-owned banks and local credit unions are filling the gap left by the major banks.

As Sue Brax, a local teacher, put it, "We deserted the big banks because they deserted us."

A local dairy farmer, who'd come into town for some cattle drench, was scathing about the proposed banking hubs.

"So they expect me to stand in line to be shown how to use a banking app," he mused.

"They obviously don't know - or care - that we barely get internet reception out on the farm."

The banks may have left it too late

There's no doubt that operating a branch network can be expensive.

Yet small regional banks and credit unions manage to do it - often on profits far lower than the $11 billion reported by CommBank last financial year, or the $7 billion recorded by Westpac.

The lesson here is that regional Australians know loyalty when they see it.

Don't bank on them embracing what may be little more than a token gesture of customer service from some of the nation's wealthiest companies.

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