Australia’s push to be a cashless society has driven hundreds of banks into closing and ATMs to be ripped out of the ground. New research from Canstar has revealed 230 bank branches shut over the 2023-24 financial year, while the death toll for ATMs over the last half-decade stands at more than 6,000.
Big banks have said it’s the dominance of digital banking that has sparked these decisions, but they have major real-world implications for customers. Kim Grace lives in the NSW Blue Mountains and his Katoomba branch is set to shut in less than a week.
“I’ve been banking with ANZ for over 40 years… and I just thought, that’s just freaking rude, you know?” he told Yahoo Finance. “Banks used to be community-based. Everyone knew the bank manager, the bank manager knew everyone. Now it’s just for the shareholders.”
The closest ANZ branches to him after the October 23 closure will be in Bathurst or Penrith, which are both more than an hour away one-way.
RELATED
Aussies forced to drive for hours to get cash
Grace’s experience is one of many, particularly across regional and rural parts of Australia.
Tom Price, a town in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, lost its last remaining bank branch in 2022. Residents are now faced with a 700-kilometre round-trip to get to their nearest bank in Karratha.
Community members and council staff told a senate inquiry some business owners were flying to Perth with suitcases full of cash to make deposits. Other residents have reported being robbed after stashing cash in their homes, while scams and elder abuse are running rife.
Jan Harman lives in Kapunda, a rural town near the Barossa Valley in South Australia, and heavily relies on cash to do all her shopping.
“When I first came here, which was almost 30 years ago now, there were three banks – ANZ, BankSA, NAB and through the post office, you had access to Commonwealth Bank. We’re now down to none,” Harman said.
“Similarly with ATMs. There were several places, including the supermarket, that had an ATM. Now there are no ATMs on the street.”
With the nearest bank now a 30-minute drive away, Harman said she relies on Australia Post to withdraw cash. But she says the post office is “always busy” because others are often heading there to pay their bills.
Lyn lives over on the outskirts of Perth has watched as every last branch was evacuated from her area.
“How dare they limit our access to our own cash and their services, which should be widely available to us,” she told Yahoo Finance.
“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.”
Bill also explained to Yahoo Finance that when something goes wrong, it’s hard to get the problem fixed in this digital world.
“Early last year my credit card needed to be issued a new number, the problem I ran into was that my savings account is linked to the same card and as a result I found myself unable to access any funds to do my grocery shopping,” he said.
“NAB informed me that I could withdraw cash over the counter at any of their branches, one problem, the nearest NAB branch is over an hours drive from where I live!”
How many bank branches have been closed and why?
Analysis from Canstar shows bank branch closures outside the major cities slowed down compared to the 2023 financial year, but the 2024 financial year still saw 230 branches shut.
The rate of closures slowed from 11 per cent the previous year to 7 per cent.
Of that 230, 52 were located in a regional area. The year before, 112 were shut.
Over a five-year period, 1,615 have shut their doors.
For ATMs, 217 have been removed across the country in the last financial year.
While Canstar noted that closures had slowed, it’s still not great news for many who have seen their local branch or ATM removed.
“Bank branches are continuing to disappear as banking and payments increasingly go digital,” Canstar Data Insights Director Sally Tindall said.
“If you ask anyone who was relying on those 52 branches to do their day-to-day banking, they won’t exactly be chalking this up as a win.
“Cash might not rule the roost any more but there’s still plenty of Australians that rely on it as a way to pay for things.
ANZ told Yahoo Finance that transactions in its branches across the country have halved over the last five years and only 1 per cent of transactions are done over-the-counter.
It’s a similar story for Commonwealth Bank (CBA), who recently announced that average monthly ATM withdrawals have plummeted 51 per cent since 2019 while digital payments have skyrocketed 85 per cent.
Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh told Yahoo Finance in a statement that Australia still maintains “one of the most extensive branch networks in the world”.
“This report reflects the change in the way Australians access banking services. With 99 per cent of banking transactions now taking place digitally, less Australians are visiting branches, with traffic dropping by almost 50 per cent in recent years.
“Australians are actually interacting with their bank more than ever before, thanks to the ease and convenience of digital banking. This is further evidenced by payments by mobile wallets now outstripping total ATM cash withdrawals.”
Which bank closed the most branches?
Canstar has outlined how many branches and ATMs were removed or closed from the Big Four banks.
-
Westpac: 88 branch closures since last year and 1,372 over five years
-
NAB: 44 branch closures and 192 over five years
-
CBA: 40 branch closures and 1,507 over five years
-
ANZ: 4 branch closures and 1,447 over five years
Western Australia lost 9 per cent of its 339 bank branches last year – the highest rate of any state or territory. But NSW lost the highest number of branches, waving goodbye to 78 (7 per cent) of outlets.
For ATMs, the Northern Territory is the safest place if you use cash as the territory has been losing money machines at a slower rate during the past five years than the rest of the country.
Last year, six extra ATMs popped up. The other jurisdictions list between 2 per cent (Victoria, down to 1500 ATMs) and 8 per cent (the ACT, now with 81 cash machines).
“The latest ATM statistics from the RBA shows Australians withdrew $107 billion in the last 12 months alone – that’s a lot of cash,” Ms Tindall said.
The issue is a major concern for many Aussies across the country.
A poll of more than 1,200 Yahoo Finance readers found 71 per cent had been affected by a branch closure while a separate survey of 5,400 people showed 93 per cent believe banks should be forced to keep branches open.
What are the banks doing about branch closures?
CBA, Westpac and ANZ have all committed to moratoriums on branch closures for the next few years.
As part of its deal with Suncorp, ANZ ensured it wouldn’t shutter anymore locations until mid-2027.
Westpac said all regional branches have been given a lifeline until at least 2027.
CBA has made a similar commitment until the end of 2026.
“The big question is, what will happen beyond this commitment from CBA, Westpac and ANZ?” Tindall asked.
“The banks, government and regulators will need to continue collaborating on solutions as our payments and banking platforms evolve.”
NAB is the only bank of the Big Four that hasn’t made a stern pledge to protect customers from branch closures.
But its CEO, Andrew Irvine, recently said how important it was to keep branches open.
“The challenge, of course, is that more people are doing their banking digitally today and fewer people are going in the branches,” Irvine told 3AW. “So as a steward of our resources, we have to look at putting them where our facilities are being used.”
Irvine claimed he hadn’t closed a single NAB branch since taking on the top job six months ago. When asked whether he planned to keep existing branches open, he said that was the plan.
“As long as they’re busy, that’s the view I have and I’m looking at. Look, I’ve got branches where there is no one in there, I think we’ll have to have a question,” he said.
“But if the branches are busy, we’ll keep them open. Absolutely.”
Get the latest Yahoo Finance news – follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.
What you need to know about the use of cash in Australia
-
Fewer people are using cash due to the convenience of paying with phones, watches and cards.
-
There isn’t a shortage of cash-withdrawal points, with around 20,000 ATMs plus supermarkets to collect from.
-
There’s about $100 billion in cash floating around Australia – or 2 billion notes
-
The government has not indicated cash will be taken out of circulation
-
The Big Four banks have all ruled out going cashless.
-
Average cash withdrawal has increased from $180 to $290.
-
RBA: ATM withdrawals dropped from 77.9 million in December 2008 to 29.7 million in June 2023.
-
Finder survey: 13 per cent of Aussies never use cash, 44 per cent use it once a week, and 42 per cent once a month or less.
