The Engineered Death of Regional Banking in Australia

According to independent research by banking writer Dale Webster, 64 percent of bank branches in regional Australia have closed since 1975.

Only 1011 ‘big four’ bank branches remain, largely clustered in major centres.

Even worse, 589 towns that once had bank branches now have no banks left at all.

Another 84 towns are on the verge of complete loss of banking services with just one major bank branch remaining.

According to APRA, Australia’s banking regulator, between June 2017 and June 2022, the number of branches went from 5,694 to 4,014.

That’s a loss of 1,680 branches – or 30 percent – in just five years.

ATM Cash machines are also being closed at a record rate.

Over 1,345 ATMs were shut down by the banks during 2021-22.

A reduction of 17 per cent in one year.

It’s not just those in the bush, either, who are bearing the brunt of all these closures.

Bank branches and ATMs are fast disappearing from suburban areas of our cities as well.

What these closures show, is that the ‘Big Four’ banks are no longer acting in ‘good faith’ towards the Australian people.

In fact, according to FSU, the banks are engaged in a deliberate campaign to ‘condition’ regional communities and older customers into accepting the gradual loss of all face-to-face banking services over the next 10 years.

Bank staff told the FSU they had been trained to steer customers towards using online banking and to implement ‘nudge strategies’ aimed at decreasing in-person visits to branches.

Staff said they faced disciplinary action and even termination, if the bank-imposed targets for digital banking weren’t met.

Banks are enforcing a ‘cashless’, automated digital banking system on Australians by stealth, while betraying their staff, customers and regional communities.

Last month, a Committee of Inquiry set up at the behest of Senator Gerard Rennick, to examine the economic and social impacts of regional branch closures.

The findings of this inquiry are due by 1 December.

Senate submissions for the inquiry are open until March 31.

I urge everyone to make a submission on the impact that these closures are having on regional communities.

Regional Australia deserves a fair go and to be treated with respect.

It does not deserve to have key services ripped out of its communities by multi-billion dollar banking monopolies, seeking to maximise bank profits and to further the ‘cashless’ agenda of their global finance masters.

That it IS a globalist agenda is evident from the way identical banking policies are currently being pushed worldwide.

Bank closures in regional Australia

IS AUSTRALIA HEADED FOR ECONOMIC ARMAGEDDON?

Remember in 2020 when EXPERTS told us that, contrary to what we were all taught in the past, mountains of government debt was actually a good thing?

It was called Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and it all hung together beautifully in the models.

Well you don’t hear much about MMT anymore.

Not since inflation started skyrocketing and central banks began hiking their interest rates.

This month, Australia’s RBA raised interest rates to 0.85% and Goldman Sachs says it could hit 2.6% by year’s end.

Which makes RBA’s actions incredibly reckless, in my book.

Property and household debt are pretty much the only thing still driving this country’s economy.

We generate no real wealth, create no productive jobs, while private investment and wage growth have been stagnant for decades.

Where is the national productivity agenda?  There is none.

Australia is now a ‘service’ economy – ‘services’ and the longest running property bubble in history!

In 2020, the Treasurer said gross government debt would be $1.1 trillion by June 2024.

According to Treasury’s models, the total interest payable on all that debt was predicted to be $113 billion by June 2025, or close to $20 billion each year.

There’s just one tiny problem.

The  models were calculated on the ‘assumption’ that there would be A STEADILY FALLING INTEREST RATE ACROSS THAT PERIOD!

Which as everyone knows, didn’t happen. Instead of falling, interest rates have tripled.

So instead of having to pay around $20 billion in interest each year, the federal government could be looking at $60 billion.

And despite what MMT theorists believe, governments absolutely MUST pay their annual debt interest payments – or the whole house of cards collapses.

Imagine if interest rates do hit that 2.6% Goldman Sachs has predicted.  We could be looking at an annual interest bill ten times the amount predicted in 2020.

Even at $60 billion, Australia’s interest bill would be the Government’s third largest expenditure item behind health and aged income support, according to the IPA.

And remember! Australia’s Big Four Banks are 60-70% exposed to the property sector.  Even a moderate run of defaults could finish them.

And here’s the kicker.

Under the Financial Claims Scheme Guarantee, deposits of $1 million or below with Australian-owned banks, building societies, credit unions and even Australian subsidiaries of foreign-owned banks are automatically guaranteed by the Federal Government!

That means if the property market collapses and some or all of the banks crash, guess who’s on the hook to bail them out?  The Federal Government.

It would bankrupt the country.

Let’s hope the RBA knows what its doing!