Westpac reverses its plan to shut eight rural branches after ‘customer feedback’

Westpac Banking Group says it’s listened to customers and given a reprieve to a handful of rural branches. See if yours has been saved ...

Westpac’s Cloncurry branch in Queensland has been spared from closure.

Westpac Banking Group will keep open a handful of rural branches it had previously earmarked for closure.

It is the first time the lender has pivoted on planned branch closures after coming under pressure from government officials.

The Sydney-based lender had halted plans to close eight locations in February. A Senate inquiry into the impact of bank closures on rural communities had asked lenders to pause closures until the end of the review in December.

Westpac said its decision to keep the branches open indefinitely came after feedback from customers and employees in rural Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia.

“After further discussions with customers and employees, we’ve decided to keep eight regional branches open, which were previously announced as closures,” a bank spokesman said.

“We look forward to continuing to serve these regions.”

The branches that have been spared from closure are in Tully, Ingham, Cloncurry and Gatton in Queensland; Robinvale and Sale in Victoria; Denmark in Western Australia; and the Westpac-owned Bank SA office at Kingston SE in South Australia.

A sign at the Cloncurry branch. The branch will now stay open.

The Senate inquiry, chaired by Queensland Liberal Senator Matthew Canavan, was called after banks closed about 100 regional branches in the final quarter of 2022.

For many, the lack of a rural bank branch can mean having to travel hundreds of kilometres to see an account manager to obtain an approval for a mortgage, or opening an account.

Westpac’s decision comes ahead of the inquiry’s public hearings resuming on May 17.

In March, Westpac told the inquiry that its customers banked via digital channels 96 per cent of the time and it aimed to offer customers “the best most accessible service” it could.

“It isn’t that customers don’t want to travel 100km to their nearest branch, they don’t want to travel at all,” Westpac general manager of customer engagement Ross Miller told the inquiry in March.

“They want to be able to do their banking at any hour of the day, from the comfort of their own home. Our move to digital first banking is one that is led by customer preference.”

At the time, Commonwealth Bank also said it would halt planned closures of branches in Victoria and New South Wales for the remainder of the inquiry.