Western Australia Bankwest branches to close by October
Bankwest will close all of its branches across Western Australia by October, but maintains it will not lead to job losses.
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00:00 Bankwest says the move away from branches is designed to meet the needs of customers across the nation.
00:07 As a result of Bankwest's transition to a digital bank we will no longer operate a physical branch footprint.
00:13 It means 28 metropolitan and 17 regional branches will be closed by October,
00:18 while 15 others in the regions will become Commonwealth bank branches.
00:22 It's been a rapid move to digital services being the preference for our customers.
00:26 97% of all transactions now are conducted digitally by our customers.
00:31 Bankwest says about 2,000 of its customers only use the branch network and do so quite frequently,
00:37 with the bank reaching out to provide specific solutions for them.
00:40 The hundreds of workers impacted by the closures will be offered new jobs.
00:45 Really pleased to say that we will be in a position where we will be offering employment to every single one of our staff in the branch network.
00:52 They bring really incredible skills in terms of their customer service.
00:57 A lot of our members joined banking to do face-to-face customer relations roles,
01:02 and those roles are now being taken away from them.
01:05 The bank is hoping a lot of those people transition to back office call centre roles,
01:09 and we know our members are telling us that that is not what a lot of them got into banking to do.
01:14 Some Bankwest branches have very low customer numbers.
01:17 The daily average at Lake Grace is two, at Corrigan it's three,
01:21 while at Joondalup and Morley there are at least 40 customers per day.
01:25 One customer in Perth was outraged when he was told of the news.
01:29 I think to have no physical footprint across WA is absolutely atrocious,
01:33 absolutely atrocious because we can't all deal with things digitally.
01:38 David Young says problems will arise when phone services go down and apps aren't available.
01:44 [BLANK_AUDIO]