Huge changes at Westpac will see dozens of branches close in biggest ever downsizing of a big Australian bank
- Australia’s oldest deposit bank Westpac is closing 48 branches across Australia
- This will jeopardise the jobs of 165 bank staff including tellers as part of the cull
- Westpac branches in Sydney’s centre city and inner west set to go by April 30
- So will branches in Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula and city’s south-east
Australia’s oldest bank Westpac is closing 48 branches nationwide with some services to be terminated from late April in Sydney and Melbourne.
Westpac and branches of its subsidiaries St George, Bank SA and Bank of Melbourne are being culled, with 165 jobs in jeopardy.
Until last month, Westpac had 879 branches nationally but the number of outlets with tellers is set to fall as Australia’s second biggest bank focuses on phone and internet banking.
Australia’s oldest bank Westpac is closing 48 branches across Australia
‘To meet this changing customer demand, Westpac has grown its 24/7 phone banking and virtual banking centres,’ a spokeswoman said.
The Finance Sector Union was informed Westpac intended to close 48 branches within its banking group.
Westpac put the proposed closure figure at 40 and said 21 of those branches were in response to Covid 19.
The union’s national secretary Julia Angrisano said Westpac had abandoned its customers.
‘Westpac is deserting its customers and its staff by closing branches to shore up its profits,’ she said.
‘This shutdown of so many branches is of major concern to our members and will impact on a large number of staff, banking customers and businesses around Australia.’
Some of the closures are set to occur from the end of April 2021 with Westpac’s Castlereagh Street branch in Sydney’s city centre, the Five Dock branch in the city’s inner west the first to be closed.
Melbourne is also losing two branches on April 30, with the Mount Eliza branch on the Mornington Peninsula and the one at Monash University to cease operations on that day.
More branches are closing on May 7 including Avalon on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, Victoria Point in Brisbane’s east, North Melbourne and Belmont in Geelong’s south.
A week later, on May 14, branches are earmarked for closure at Surry Hills in Sydney’s east, Victoria Park in Melbourne’s south, Melbourne’s Seafood Central, University Hill at Bundoora in Melbourne’s north and West Perth.
More closures are set to follow on May 21, with Westpac to close its Newington branch in Sydney’s inner west as its axes its Wanneroo branch in Perth’s north.
On that day, the Mackay North branch in north Queensland is closing as services are merged with the Mackay branch.
July 9 will see branch closures at Port August and Tanunda in South Australia as services are merged with existing BankSA branches. A Lithgrow branch in the New South Wales Central West is merging with a St George Bank on that day.
On July 31, Westpac is closing its William Street branch in Melbourne’s city centre.
September 3 will see the Murray Bridge branch merge with the BankSA’s existing branch and the Dubbo branch merge with the St George branch.
Westpac made a net profit of $2.29billion in the year to September 2020, but this marked a 66 per cent decline on the previous full-year.