ANZ Group is planning to close 19 branches across Australia as customers continue to switch over to online banking.
The proposed branch cuts will be across several states with the maximum in New South Wales (NSW) followed by Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and Tasmania.
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It is expected that the closure of the 19 branches may result in over 100 employees being laid off.
ANZ says this move is just a reflection of increased online banking by customers. Also, the branch cuts are happening for the past four years in response to the declining trend of in-branch transactions.
ANZ MD of retail Katherine Bray was quoted by 9News as saying: “Last year alone 70% of our customers preferred digital banking options. Even our few remaining passbook customers have been choosing to use debit cards for the first time.
“Only 12 per cent of our customers used branches during the same time, which means we were only completing about one transaction per customer per month over the counter.
Finance Sector Union national secretary Julia Angrisano said: “Around 105 staff will be affected by the closures. It is clear the ANZ Bank does not care about its staff or the community.
“Over the past year the bank has stepped up its branch closure program, putting people before profits, with hundreds of staff being thrown onto the unemployment scrapheap.”
ANZ said staff affected in previous closures were offered new roles within the ANZ and even provided career coaching for those who wanted to leave the bank.
Bray added: “Of our employees that were working in a branch that closed last year, we were able to find new roles or redeployment opportunities for nearly all of them that wanted to stay with ANZ, including at remote locations.”
ANZ also stated that staff who lost their job and suffering from financial burden would be assisted with ANZ’s Past Employee Care.
Recently, ANZ New Zealand has admitted that it breached the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (FMCA) by misleading some customers over credit card insurance charges.
