Attributable to Finance Sector Union National Secretary Julia Angrisano:
“The Federal Government needs to act to ensure Queenslanders have access to banking services in their suburbs and towns. 148 branches were cut in the 5 years to June and since then there have been more announcements of closures from Bank of Queensland, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank.
We are disgusted that despite a Senate Inquiry into regional banking services calling for regulatory measures to protect local communities access an essential service, we still see banks cutting and running from the sunshine state.
Customers and staff are being abandoned by banks, big and small, as they continue to make even higher profits as they abandon local Queensland communities. It is disgraceful that they can thumb their noses at communities and roll in their record profits.
The Commonwealth Bank Group cut a combined 32 Branches (29 CBA and 3 BankWest) which is a shocking indictment on their commitment to the State at a time of record profits. The CBA has the highest price to earnings ratio in the world at over 30 and its share price has gained 51% this financial year. However other banks aren’t far behind – Melbourne based NAB has 30 branch closures, Sydney based Westpac had 25 and Melbourne based ANZ rounded out the big 4 with 25 branch closures.
Queensland based banks are also abandoning their own customers with Bank of Queensland having cut 9 in the past 5 years with 4 more to close in the coming months. Heritage Bank’s merger with People’s Choice to create People First has resulted in a loss of 13 branches as part of their merger.
The reality is that banks are cutting branches because they can – there’s no regulatory requirements for banks to keep a presence in local communities, or indeed the suburbs.
We have written to the new Federal Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Daniel Mullino seeking to ensure that he makes access to banking a priority.
Despite our repeated calls on the previous Financial Services Minister and the Albanese Government to act on the recommendations and protect the future of bank branches across Australia, no action has been taken and today we continue to see further closures occurring across the country.
This is unacceptable and Queenslanders deserve better.
For media inquiries please contact David Imber on 0413 274 204 or [email protected]
FSU stands for Finance Sector Union, not Financial Services Union
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