TERANG community leaders say the town has been dealt a massive blow with the closure of its Commonwealth Bank branch.
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The branch will close on June 30. The closure leaves the town with one bank, the NAB.
The decision to shut the doors comes after the branch hours were reduced in 2012. The ANZ shut in Terang last year and the NAB branch also reduced its hours.
Corangamite Shire councillor Helen Durant said the decision showed a lack of understanding and a lack of loyalty to the rural community.
“This is a huge blow which we don’t appreciate or deserve,” she said.
“Terang is a fantastic town and we really do try to put our best foot forward. I’m very disappointed and quite angry.”
The Terang district councillor said the closure highlighted the urgency for a community bank. Cr Durant said she was not aware of any community consultation on the Commonwealth’s decision and there were many people who relied on face-to-face banking.
“I’m sure there were customers who went from ANZ when it closed and they would be doubly angry about it,” she said. Terang Progress Association president Chris O’Connor said the closure demonstrated how the big banks were driven more by greed for their shareholders than the interests of their customers. “I thought they would have felt a bit more of a responsibility to the community,” he said.
Mr O’Connor said the community was determined to have a serviceable bank branch. “This means we’d like it to happen sooner rather than later,” he said.
“Terang is a typical country town. We have an ageing population who require those services. There are people at Cooinda who require the extra services.”
The Commonwealth Bank branch in Casterton is also set to close in June. A spokeswoman for the bank said the decision to close the branches wasn’t easy and she understood there were people who would be disappointed.
“We have identified that fewer customers use this branch following a steady decline in transactions as they choose to use other banking channels like online and mobile,” she said.
“Over the last five years, we’ve seen a 43 per cent decline in the number of transactions at our Casterton branch. Over the same period, transactions completed at our Terang branch have halved.”
