Westpac moving with the times (Bank@Post)

[JeffH]

At noon yesterday Westpac issued this press release; Westpac customers can now BANK@POST.
That opens up a lot more outlets for Westpac customers to do their banking. A good thing?

At 11 am yesterday Westpac had a conference with their 147 "In Store" franchisees and told them their licenses were all being phased out over the next 17 months -met with stunned silence. (See paragraph 7 of the press release.)
Not a good thing for many small communities.

Consider the implications with the changes Westpac is already implementing;
•Westpac unveils its new branches of the future
•Bank Now branches Doesn't that give you a warm, fuzzy feeling, especially branch number 5 consisting of four "hole in the wall" machines.
•Self Service Banking Wasn't that long ago the banks admitted the mass branch closures of recent years were a mistake and now they are just following another tack to discourage the face to face contact customers appreciate.

I choose to live in a small, friendly community for many reasons but this is just another blow to the viability of many such communities. I must declare I do have a personal interest; my wife's job will be terminated come October 1 and I will no longer have a reasonable source of noodling coin -not the end of the world but a few more unwelcome things we have to accept.

The decisions from Westpac, like those of many large businesses and Governments seem to only consider the "Bottom Line" and take no account of the social cost. Is this right or wrong; or just a fact of modern life?

In a few more years, as services further deteriorate in rural areas Australia Post may be "find it necessary" to make similar, "hard" decisions in the interest of financial viability. Along with our small, chain supermarket, hardware store, rural supplies outlet, (hospital has already closed), schools and the list goes on.
Where will it all end?

This, so far, has not generally been picked up by the media but I did find one media comment...Westpac deal with Australia Post bad for small town business which has gone straight to the heart of the matter.

[JeffH]

Just checked out Bank@Post. A lot of financial institutions listed including all the major (and many minor) banks, many credit unions and some building societies.
You can;
•Deposit cash or cheques to your account,
•Withdraw cash from your account and
•Check your account balance.
You will need a deposit book and/or card from your bank plus a PIN.
Daily limits apply. Only banknotes (and cheque deposits) -no coin.
No fees from Australia Post but there might be fees on your account.

So, apart from ability to deposit it seems to offer no more than an ATM. I would imagine most of the 3,000+ outlets have an ATM in the vicinity and ATMs operate outside business hours. I think I have seen machines/night safes that have deposit slots at some places.

Westpac says "...transfer of the bank's current third party agency service agreements with 147 regional providers to Australia Post". This is not true -existing "In Store Branches" offer a range of branch services with staff trained by Westpac in the bank's policies, procedures and product offerings -in fact, many of these staff are ex-Westpac staff made redundant when the original branch closed. The tellers have a dedicated terminal accessing the Westpac system, just as does a teller in a full service branch. Westpac "Bank@Post" access is already available and the existing franchises will just be terminated -nothing will be transferred to Australia Post.
Westpac plans to write to all account holders at franchise branches to advise them of the change. It will be interesting to see what spin they put on that.

For this town (Gulgong, NSW) it means;
•For most people nothing, or very little as they are not Westpac customers.
•Likely closure of quite a few accounts and customers take their custom to CBA, which is the only full service bank branch left in town. Several other towns in this area don't have any other bank in town.
•Those who retain their Westpac account(s) will have to travel 30km, each way, for anything more than the most basic banking transactions.
•Three of the four buildings at the main intersection, in the centre of town, will be vacant from 1st October, with minimal prospects of gaining a tenant -two of them were originally banks. The existing Westpac franchisee also has the NRMA agency and is already looking at alternate premises -plenty of vacancies nearby. The size of the existing (ex bank) premises is too large for just the one agency and, likewise, the rent too high to service. Staff requirements will be exactly halved.
•The operators of the Licensed Post Office may pick up a little extra business (and income) -they are struggling to make a decent living now.

So, life will go on as normal; except "normal" will be a little different for some people and, maybe, very different for a very few unfortunates.

Westpac to quit small business agency outlets for Australia Post

[Basil]

Sign of the times Jeff,interesting to see where it all leads.The Libs. still have an agenda here re privatisation of AP outlets,they will gradually squeeze the edges and probaly use the current CEO to do the dirty work and set the climate for change.

[ausjack]

I too like living in the bush but gee they're all making it very hard and pretty obvious they want us all in the big cities but there's not enough room for us all

[JeffH]

Someone who should know -until recently worked a couple of days a week in a Westpac in store branch (until it closed) and still works a couple of days in a Post Office- told me;
•Westpac paid $1.75 per transaction to in-store franchisees
•Westpac pays 22¢ per transaction to Australia post.
The maths of that would have been irresistible to the Westpac Board. But, how do the figure pan out?

Well here is my guestimate (including some wild assumptions);
•Assume 100 transactions per in-store agency per working day.
•Assume half of those go to Australia Post. In our town many accounts were closed and people transferred their banking to the only bank that still has a full service branch locally.
•There were 147 in-stores and all are to be closed.
•Typically a "branch" is open Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays -250 days per year.
Put those figures together and the calculated saving to Westpac is just over $6million annually. A significant amount of money but a drop in the ocean for Westpac (less than one tenth of one percent of their annual, declared profit). Still that would about pay for the Westpac CEO's annual salary package.
Additional savings would accrue by not having to maintain in store fitouts and equipment and only having to deal with one entity (Australia Post) instead of 147.

So Westpac saves in the order of $6M annually and probably inflicts more than that as collateral damage on rural communities. But that is not their problem; they are big business, not a charity. Community welfare is Governments' problem and that is one reason why we pay taxes. Of course, Westpac being very big business, would be taking all measures to minimise their tax burden.

The moral of this story? You can provide your own. I will say that, when you see big business advertising their community activities, they are doing it as part of their marketing strategy, not out of the goodness of their hearts. You can be sure such activities have had a cost/benefit analysis (or they have been forced on them by public opinion or Government decree). Like all generalisations there are exceptions and some big businesses (not many) do have a social conscience.

Disclaimer I cannot vouch for the absolute verity of my guestimate. My figures are just to give an indication of what may be the situation.