General News
12 May, 2026
Bush betrayal: deserted branches cost regions $1B a year, 4,000 jobs
An alliance of regional banks, including Darling Downs Bank, small businesses and community supporters have called for an urgent fix to the ongoing desertion of essential bank branch services in Australia’s regions.
Current band-aid measures like the “moratorium” until 2027 and Bank@Post simply don’t stack up, as many big banks are using them to mask ongoing reductions in opening hours and services including cash handing, the Regional Banking Investment Alliance (RBIA) said.
The Alliance is proposing a bank-funded, low-cost, cost-sharing model be introduced urgently, to quickly counter the ongoing decline in branch services.
The model will see essential banking services and bank jobs with trained staff return to regional and remote communities.
RBIA member and CEO of Regional Australia Bank, David Heine said a Community Service Obligation and cost sharing model on banks would simply reverse an unfair cross-subsidy that already exists, where banks that choose to stay and service regional communities are currently providing face-to-face services for the rest of the industry with no support.
In a process called “pass through banking” regional banks are providing the daily services, whilst larger and online banks are profiting from mortgages and deposits.
“Face-to-face services are part of a bank’s social licence to operate in Australia, and many are abandoning that responsibility,” Mr Heine said.
“Face-to-face banking services are not a ‘nice to have’ – they provide essential services and trained personnel to cater for needs of the people and businesses in our regional and remote communities.
“Branches provide employment and infra-structure as well as community engagement and support.
“They are places of action when people need help from trained professionals – security, privacy, scam prevention, problem solving and cash services.”
As a consequence of community backlash, Federal Parliament has conducted two inquiries.
Both inquiries concluded that branches were essential and that solutions were needed to keep bank branches in regional areas, however no meaningful policy has been implemented.
Over the last nine years, there has been a 38 per cent reduction in bank branches in regional and remote Australia – around 900 branches closed and nearly 4,000 jobs lost.
Banks have pocketed about $1 billion a year in cost savings from these closures.
Worse still, some of the fastest growing banks in the country, backed by tax-payer protections, provide no face-to-face regional branch support at all.
