Commonwealth Bank branch to close at Koornang Road Carnegie
A busy shopping strip in Melbourne’s south east will be left without a bank when the final branch closes next month, devastating locals.
Inner South
Don't miss out on the headlines from Inner South . Followed categories will be added to My News.
A busy shopping strip in Melbourne’s south east will lose its last remaining bank branch at the end of next month, “devastating” the local community.
Oakleigh state Labor MP Steve Dimopoulos has revealed the Commonwealth Bank will close its Koornang Rd Carnegie branch and remove its ATMs on April 29.
It follows the departure of the Bank of Melbourne, Westpac and ANZ.
“By the end of next month there’ll be no bank left in Carnegie. Not a single one,” Mr Dimopoulos said on Facebook.
“250 businesses, thousands of residents and no bank.”
After the branch closure, the nearest Commonwealth Bank branches for people living in Carnegie will be in Chadstone, Oakleigh, Ashburton and Bentleigh.
Carnegie Traders Association vice president Graeme Callen said the Commonwealth Bank’s closure would be “devastating” for the local community.
“A lot of pensioners are not mobile, and they’re basically being told they now have to go to bank in Chadstone (shopping centre),” he said.
“They’ll probably say there’s a bus service there, but that’s not convenient to someone in a motorised chair, or who can’t walk a long distance.
“Also our association represents about 220 businesses in the immediate area … how do they survive for banking their sales, getting customer support and getting change?
“We’re not living in a cashless society; it may happen one day but it’s not happening yet.”
Commonwealth Bank regional general manager Nicole Rahme said it made the difficult decision to permanently close the Carnegie branch following a recent review.
“This branch has had a 43 per cent drop in transactions over the five years before the coronavirus pandemic,” Ms Rahme said.
She said for customers who prefer face-to-face options, banking services were available at the Carnegie Post Shop or other Commonwealth Bank branches nearby.
Ms Rahme said staff from the Carnegie branch would be offered redeployment opportunities, including roles supporting customers over the phone and online, or other comparable roles where it suited them.
It follows the permanent closure of the East Bentleigh Commonwealth Bank branch last year.
The branch temporarily closed in May 2020, with staff deployed to support Australian contact centres who were receiving more than a million “increasingly complex” calls every month.
Following a review, a decision was made to close that branch permanently at the end of July 2021.
It experienced a 57 per cent drop in transactions over the five years before it temporarily closed.
Mr Dimopoulos said there were still people that had to go into a bank branch every week and some were not comfortable with technology, online banking or had hearing or language difficulties.
He has started a petition calling on the Federal Government to step in and put pressure on Australia’s banks over the closure of local branches.
The Herald Sun recently revealed more than 120 bank branches have been shut down across Victoria by Australia’s big banks in just three years — including 21 branches in Melbourne city alone — while the number of automated teller machines has been decimated.
RECENT BRANCH CLOSURES ACROSS VICTORIA
Bank of Melbourne Forest Hill, Burwood East, Ferntree Gully, Carnegie, Berwick, Bundoora, Rowville
The young generation to lead St John’s forward
After its promotion to Division 2 of the VAFA, St John’s is ready to make their mark in a higher division and it’s a package of 10-12 young stars leading the charge.
Inside renowned Oscar-nominated Melb producer’s modernist pad
Leading film producer Paul Wiegard, known for projects such as Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Balibo and the Oscar-nominated Memoir of a Snail, is selling his sustainable Armadale house.