In a sad day for face-to-face banking, a major financial institution has ended more than a century of tradition and closed its final metropolitan branch as it transforms into a digital-only entity.
The closure of the Bankwest branch at Mandurah Forum, a shopping mall about an hour’s drive south of Perth’s CBD in Western , follows the shuttering of 27 other branches across the greater Perth area this year – and the closure of its branches in every other capital city.
The closures follow the announcement last March by Bankwest’s owner, Commonwealth Bank of (CBA), that the smaller institution would become a digital-only bank.
Bankwest, formerly owned by the West n government, will turn its remaining 15 branches in regional WA into CBAs by mid-December, but the parent company has provided no guarantee they will remain in operation beyond 2026.
At the time of the announcement in March, Bankwest executive general manager Jason Chan said closing the network was a difficult but necessary decision to ensure the bank’s sustainability.
He said falling patronage by the bank’s 550,000 customers in Western no longer justified the cost of keeping open the branches dotted around the vast state, claiming they were handling an average of just 30 over-the-counter transactions a day at metro branches with the regional centres only processing 15 per day.
The end of face-to-face interactions by the bank brings to a close branch operations since it first opened in the state as the Agricultural Bank of Western in 1895.
‘It’s very sad,’ Bankwest customer Lyn told Yahoo Finance.
‘This bank started out servicing farmers before the name changed to Bankwest. Then CBA bought it. Mandurah is traditionally a holiday, retirement area, so lots of oldies. How devastating for their community.
‘How dare they limit our access to our own cash and their services, which should be widely available to us.
‘My main concern is not for ourselves, but for our seniors, for whom it can be very difficult to adapt to the new technological ways, physically move around, drive or travel large distances.’
Bankwest claimed over-the-counter transactions at the Mandurah branch had fallen 30.6 per cent in the year to February this year, with the daily average being just 64.
The bank closed all its east coast branches in 2022.
More than 2,100 bank branches closed in in the six years between 2017 and 2023, according to the n Prudential Regulatory Authority.
Westpac had the highest number of branch closures last year, at 167, while Commonwealth Bank closed 73 branches, ANZ closed 72 and NAB shut down 63, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Lenders defend the branch closures as a necessary response to a changing customer base that now largely prefers digital services to physical banking.
But community concerns, particularly in regional areas where customers are more dependent on branch services, saw CBA boss Matt Comyn announce a moratorium on branch closures by his bank until at least 2026.
Westpac later followed suit, but ANZ and NAB did not make a similar commitment.
ANZ recently faced angry backlash from locals after it announced the closure of its Katoomba branch in NSW’s Blue Mountains region.
The bank had vowed in June not to close any regional branches for three years in return for federal treasurer Jim Chalmers approving its acquisition of Suncorp Bank.
ANZ defended the decision, stating that the closure does not violate its commitment because Katoomba is ‘classified by the n Bureau of Statistics’ n Statistical Geography Standard as a major city location’.
But outraged locals claimed the bank looked for a ‘loophole’ to strip them of their branch from October 23.