Pilbara Bankwest branches on the chopping block

Commonwealth Bank is bringing the curtain down on Bankwest’s 129-year-old branch network with a shock mass closure aimed at remaking the State’s oldest lender as a “digital only” bank. Staff and customers were told on Wednesday that Bankwest’s 60 branches would be either closed or rebadged to CBA by October, and the 350 affected staff offered new roles. Among the closures announced are the Karratha and Port Hedland branches, while the Newman branch will be rebranded. CBA, which bought Bankwest in the shadow of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, had made no secret of its plan to recreate the regional lender as an online bank for homeowners, citing the ever weakening use of branches by customers. Figures released this week by Bankwest showed that just 11 people each day were visiting the Port Hedland branch over the past six months, while Karratha and Newman hosted just seven a piece. Elsewhere in the North West, Broome’s branch — also on the chopping block — received 11 visitors while Kununurra’s branch has been closed since August 2022 because staff could not be found to resource it. Despite the eye-opening figures, the mass shutdown will still come as a shock to employees and customers, who would have expected a longer transition, even allowing for its increasing number of branch closures in recent years. Bankwest said the final 45 branches to close — 28 in Perth and 17 in regional WA — include five already slated for closure by mid-April. Its remaining 15 branches, all in country centres, will be converted to CBA by the end of the year, but their future is not guaranteed beyond 2026. The bank has run a branch network since it was founded in 1895 as the Agricultural Bank, later the Rural & Industries Bank, with the backing of then-premier John Forrest as “a novel experiment in State enterprise” to help fund the cultivation of the Wheatbelt. But Bankwest said on Wednesday that the dwindling number of customers no longer justified the significant investment in its far-flung network, which includes both owned and rented properties. About 97 per cent of transactions with the bank are now done online by increasingly tech-savvy customers. Barely 2000 of its about 550,000 WA customers only use a branch, and Bankwest insists it will help them move across to CBA, or access facilities at local post offices, so they can continue to bank in person. CBA’s commitment to Bankwest since its $2.1 billion purchase has been questionable, with its ownership marked by cutbacks to the subsidiary’s reach and services. However, Bankwest said on Wednesday the parent would “redirect” or create WA 500 jobs in IT, operations and customer service in support of the digital transition, while investing significantly in the brand, new products and its digital platform. The Bankwest boss, executive general manager Jason Chan, said the closure of the network was a difficult but necessary decision if the bank was to survive in a rapidly changing environment where most people tap digital banking. Mr Chan said that while some customers would find the news “quite confronting”, the announcement provided some well overdue certainty about Bankwest’s future. It was “probably no secret” that CBA had struggled to identify how it wanted to use Bankwest, one of the State’s biggest mortgage lenders, but “now we’ve got a really clear role to play in the CBA group”, he said. “By doing this now and going a little bit harder, we can unlock that investment and get those jobs and get that new capability and lift the experience for 97 per cent of customers using digital channels.” The 350 staff — including 129 in regional WA — affected by the shutdown represent about 10 per cent of Bankwest’s 3000-strong workforce.