Following the Optus outage this week, the Senate has launched an Inquiry into the issue and impact. One element to the fore was the lack of access to cash thanks to recent bank branch and ATM closures and some businesses choosing to go digital only. Useless when the network or power goes out.
So we need to make sure the Government hears from us about the essential utility of cash, and that they need to legislate to protect access and acceptance of it.
So make a submission to the current inquiry, deadline for which is 17th November.
Use your voice to make sure our elected officials get the message. Access to cash is a requirement, and it needs to be protected – as a safeguard to democracy!
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Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
They released their annual points of presence data that showed an 11 per cent fall in bank branches nationally in 12 months. It triggered HEADLINES around Australia last week screamed out about bank closures. Channel Nine was one of many media outlets that picked up the story, reporting 424 branches had “shut their doors for the final time”.
As Dale writes, the problem is APRA never actually said that.
“The latest statistics show a further decline in bank branches in the year to 30 June 2023, with a reduction of 424 branches across Australia (11 per cent), including 122 branches (7 per cent) in regional and remote areas. This continues a trend that has seen branch numbers decline by 34 per cent in regional and remote areas, and 37 per cent overall, since the end of June 2017.”
What unsuspecting media did not pick up on was that among those 424 branches were a number of sites that had been stripped of branch status because they no longer provided the level of service required to be classified as such by law.
The doors are still very much open but they are among the growing number of banks that have no tellers and customers can only get cash from an ATM.
So we are left with what could be described as a bit of a situation, according to Dale. I think it is more deliberate, as APRA again manages to hide the real story – on this they have form, given their close alignment to the Banks. They are in my view hardly independent, nor an effective regulator.
An important debrief on the past weeks Senate Inquiry into Regional Branch closures, use of cash and other banking issues, with Robbie Barwick from the Australian Citizens Party.
The UK banking sector is being warned it faces penalties if it does not secure free access to cash for the UK population, including businesses, following waves of branch closures over more than a decade.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Treasury confirmed the guidelines the industry was expected to follow. The legal framework showed that no person or business should be further than three miles away from facilities to withdraw or deposit cash including a cash machine.
Meantime in Australia, the Regional hearings on Branch closures continues to highlight the high-handed approach taken by the banks. We clearly need a similar bill in Australia to that now in operation in the UK.
Access to cash is a human right and needs to be preserved, and if banks are not willing to provide appropriate banking services, a National Bank in needed to provide services, especially in in regional areas!
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
In evidence given in Parliament this week we had confirmation that at least NAB, one of Australia’s big four banks, is using partial interaction statistics to falsely justify their programme of Regional Branch closures. This is the data which is parroted by the Banking Association spokesperson to justify the unjustifiable.
In the light of this, Dale Webster, The Regional Journalist, and I (remember we got the Inquiry up in the first place!) have written to the Senate Inquiry on closures today asking for an audit of all statistics being used by the banks to justify their closure plans.
Worth also reflecting on CBA’s conditional 3 year freeze on closures, and Westpac’s pull back.
Once again, we shine a spotlight on disgraceful behaviour as banks continue to suck the life blood from so many regional towns in the interests of shareholder returns. This must change!
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
An important discussion about Banking Culture with Citizens Party Research Director Robbie Barwick. Despite the progress from the Senate Inquiry into branch closures, some banks (we name them) are doing the wrong thing.
Why? Because they can and because they have powerful political influence (for now).
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog
Banks Behaving Very Very Badly: With Robbie Barwick [Podcast]
The latest new lending data from the ABS showed a surprise fall in April, with a drop in refinancing, first time buyers, and general lending for housing.
This surprise change in the lending weather might be related to Easter which occurred in the month, or it might reflect the higher interest rates now on the cards.
We discuss the data and consider the consequences.
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This is an edited version of my latest live show, in which Robbie Barwick from the Australian Citizens Party examine the latest in the Senate Inquiry into Regional Banking Closures, the ASIC Inquiry, banks and corporates behaving badly and some of the broader geo-political risks in play.
We look at the latest Senate hearings on Regional Branch closures, and discuss the continued misdirection coming from the cost-cutting banks – justified – so called – by the migration to digital banking.
But as discussed during the hearings, the banks do not want to talk about what they are doing, and a peoples bank is required to offer a real alternative.
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
