Bendigo Bank customer David Phelan is fighting against the branch closure in Yarram, which would leave the South Gippsland town without a bank. (Source: Google\/Phelan & Henderson & Co) \u00b7 Google\/Supplied <\/p>\n
The Victorian town of Yarram will be left without a bank branch next month when Bendigo Bank closes its doors<\/a>. The South Gippsland farming community is one of five Aussie towns that will no longer have access to in-person banking<\/a> by late October.<\/p>\n David Phelan, director of livestock and property agency Phelan & Henderson & Co, is one resident who is fighting against the branch closure<\/a>. The 73-year-old told Yahoo Finance he was one of the branch\u2019s biggest customers, with his business turning over $25 million last financial year.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a disgrace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n RELATED<\/p>\n The Bendigo Bank branch is the last remaining bank in the town<\/a>. It was previously home to all of the Big Four banks, with Commonwealth Bank<\/a> the last of the majors to close its doors in 2021.<\/p>\n Phelan said he shifted his accounts to Bendigo Bank<\/a> after this closure and had encouraged other residents to do the same.<\/p>\n \u201c[I said] if we all go to the Bendigo, they can\u2019t possibly afford to leave. However, I was wrong,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n When the branch closes on September 26, the nearest Bendigo Bank will be in Traralgon, which is 64 kilometres away and takes about a 50-minute drive to get to.<\/p>\n Do you have a story to share? Contact tamika.seeto@yahooinc.com<\/p>\n While Phelan\u2019s business no longer handles cash<\/a>, he said some of his older clients still pay by cheque.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re dealing with the farming community, there\u2019s a lot of people that don\u2019t have bloody computers, and if they did have they wouldn’t know the first thing about how to get in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of these pensioners hear so many things about people being scammed.<\/p>\n “They\u2019ve got a little bit of hard-earned money, they don’t want to open themselves up to get scammed and have the money taken off them.\u201d<\/p>\n Phelan said other businesses in town were concerned about having to cart their money through the hills to the branch.<\/p>\n The Yarram Country Club has been looking into the cost of hiring an armed cash transfer business<\/a> to transfer the money securely, but Phelan said it would cost them around $20,000 a year.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government needs to step in and say, no more bank closures. If you\u2019re the last one in town, you\u2019ve got to stay there and provide a service,\u201d Phelan said.<\/p>\n A Bendigo Bank spokesperson told Yahoo Finance \u201cevolving customer preferences, a reduction in business activity and an increase in cost\u201d were behind the bank\u2019s \u201cdifficult decision\u201d to permanently close its Yarram branch and ATM.<\/p>\n The bank noted more people were choosing to bank online<\/a> and fewer customers were visiting branches to do their banking.<\/p>\n It also noted customers who did visit a branch were doing so less often, and customers had also chosen other locations to conduct their banking.<\/p>\n According to branch data, 63 per cent of its Yarram customers regularly use internet banking and\/or phone banking, while 28 per cent choose to bank in-branch only.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bank apologises to its customers for the inconvenience. Bendigo Bank is proud of its regional heritage and operates Australia\u2019s second largest regional branch network,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n \u201cTo preserve our ability to continue delivering for our customers and communities, we must ensure our branches are adequately supported and resourced.\u201d<\/p>\n The bank, which says it operates Australia’s second-largest regional branch network, has advised customers that they can bank using Australia Post’s Bank@Post service<\/a>, which offers basic cash deposits and withdrawals.<\/p>\n The Yarram branch is one of 10 branches<\/a> across Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania that Bendigo Bank will close from this month, along with its 28 agency locations.<\/p>\n Two other Victorian communities, Bannockburn and Korumburra, along with Malanda in Queensland and Queenstown in Tasmania will lose their last local bank branch.<\/p>\n Queenstown residents<\/a> will face a two-hour drive to their nearest bank in Burnie when the branch closes in September.<\/p>\n West Coast Council Mayor Shane Pitt told Yahoo Finance there had been “no consultation at all” with the community about the closure and called it a “kick in the guts” for tourism and residents.<\/p>\n “This is the last bank on the West Coast of Tasmania. So it’s going to [have] a huge impact, especially given that we’ve got an ageing population and a lot of people still like face-to-face banking,” he said.<\/p>\n The federal government inquiry into bank closures in regional Australia released its final report in May last year<\/a> and laid out eight recommendations.<\/p>\n That included setting up a regional community banking branch program to help underwrite the establishment of community bank branches, guaranteeing reasonable access to cash and financial services for all Aussies, and establishing a mandatory code of conduct that would force banks to have meaningful consultation<\/a> with communities before a branch is closed.<\/p>\n Shadow Minister for Financial Services Pat Conaghan and his National party colleagues wrote to Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Financial Services Minister Daniel Mulino on Friday calling on the government to urgently table its response to the inquiry and to \u201cwork with all sides of the floor to urgently protect our regional banking services\u201d.<\/p>\n It has also called for the moratorium on regional bank closures<\/a> to be extended to other banks. The federal government struck a deal with the Big Four banks in February to keep their regional banks open<\/a> until at least mid-2027, but this doesn\u2019t cover mid-tier banks like Bendigo.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not binding, came too late for many towns in our communities, and does not cover the mid-tier banks that regional Australians rely on,\u201d Conaghan said.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery day the Labor Government delays, more regional communities lose services that small businesses, older Australians, and families rely on. We need an immediate and practical plan in place before any more doors are shut.<\/p>\n \u201cAccess to banking and financial services is a right, not a privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n Bendigo Bank<\/a> has confirmed it will close its Yarram branch in September and has informed Mayor Scott Rosetti it would not take up a proposal for a locally operated community bank.<\/p>\n It claimed the model would face the same challenges as the current branch and could not be sustained.<\/p>\n The Wellington Shire Council said the decision was a \u201cbitter blow\u201d for Yarram and came despite strong community backing for keeping local banking services.<\/p>\n Phelan said he had never seen the community \u201cso enraged\u201d as he had over this branch closure<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThey say that they are the better big bank, we\u2019re the ones for the bush, we want to help the bush. They\u2019re not helping the bush, they’re only helping their bloody own pockets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But Phelan said the fight was not over and the community was now trying to see if they could encourage one of the major banks to return to the town.<\/p>\n \u201cWe won\u2019t give up. We\u2019ll keep fighting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Get the latest Yahoo Finance news – follow us on Facebook<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n Phelan (centre) said many people in the community preferred to do face-to-face banking and were worried about how the closure would impact them. (Source: Phelan & Henderson & Co) <\/p>\n
Bendigo Bank said more customers were choosing to bank online and fewer were visiting branches. (Source: NewsWire) <\/p>\n
Shadow Minister for Financial Services Pat Conaghan has called for the moratorium on bank closures to be extended beyond the Big Four banks. (Source: Pat Conaghan\/Getty) <\/p>\n