Bendigo bank to abandon Tocumwal

The Commonwealth Bank also closed its Finley branch in April this year.

It means just three in-person will remain in Berrigan Shire — a National Australia Bank branch in both Tocumwal and Finley, and a Bendigo Bank Agency in Berrigan.

Both NAB branches close at 12.30pm weekdays, and are not available on weekends.

Berrigan’s Bendigo Bank Agency branch is operated by Berrigan Shire Council and is accessible by appointment only. And even then customers only have a two hour window, between 1.30pm to 3.30pm.

The Tocumwal Bendigo Bank Agency will close on December 31.

It has been operating out of Rob Crow & Co Real Estate for the last five years.

The bank said its decision to close was necessitated by Mr Crow’s decision to sell his business.

But Mr Crow told the Southern Riverina News that he had tried to broker a partnership between the bank and the future business owners.

‘‘We feel extremely disappointed and let down that an institution that has been established in our town for a decade, and that advertises itself as ‘the Community Bank’, is now intending to close, without any formal consultation with our agency or the community before this decision was made,’’ Mr Crow said.

‘‘We put pressure on them to review the decision.

‘‘They reviewed it and said it would lose money. So they closed it down.’’

Bendigo Bank has said that it ‘‘regrets any inconvenience that the cessation of this service may cause’’, and stressed that the bank’s ATM would remain in town and ‘‘provide convenient access to cash’’.

But local business owner John Arthur, himself a customer of the Bendigo Bank, said there are still members of the community who prefer and rely on a physical banking service.

Included in that are businesses who will now have to venture to Cobram — an hour round trip — to conduct their banking.

‘‘It might not seem like a lot, but that’s an hour out of the working day,’’ he said.

‘‘Tocumwal also has a high population of senior citizens, who are reliant on having their own local branch.

‘‘As a former board member of two community bank organisations, I am well aware of not only the importance of community banking, but the costs involved.

‘‘Sometimes however, the mantra of being a community bank needs to override financial impacts, particularly if they are negligible to the bottom line of the overall business.

‘‘We are now totally reliant on the part-time bank in town, and the problem is — as we’ve just seen — there are no assurances that they’re going to keep that branch in town.’’

The closure of regional bank branches is currently the focus of a Federal Government inquiry.

The Regional Banking Taskforce was established followng the closure of 600 regional and remote bank branches since 2017.

It is chaired by The Nationals’ Senator for NSW Perin Davey, who is based in Deniliquin.

Senator Davey says closures like those in the Southern Riverina, and reduced hours like seen in other areas, have seen many community members unable to manage their own finances and struggling against often confusing and convoluted online banking solutions.

She said it particularly impacts on the elderly members of the community.

‘‘We are receiving a number of submissions into the taskforce from small businesses,’’ Senator Davey said.

‘‘Anecdotally, we are seeing that businesses, or individuals, who need access to cash services are forced to travel out of town, where they inevitably end up conducting other business as well.

‘‘And what we also know is that the next biggest impact is on retirees and pensioners, who frequently live week-to-week and still operate very much as part of the cash society.’’

Senator Davey said she could not comment on isolated cases, such as the closure of the Bendigo Bank Agency in Tocumwal.

Submissions to the taskforce — which closed last week — are currently being reviewed and will form the basis of forthcoming recommendations.

‘‘We are currently getting that analysis done, which will be more than just anecdotal,’’ Senator Davey said.

‘‘We will be reviewing the submissions during a meeting scheduled for February in Mildura, and hoping to have a report issued by mid-February.’’