A moveable herd of bankers to roam regional areas looks like a fairly cheap solution, and one would have to think that others will imitate it.
This part-time provision of services has worked for years for circuit judges and for medical specialists who visit regional centres.
Banks in regional areas where there is no branch provide transactional services though the post office, but this does not cater to customers who require more particular support.
For the most part, customers increasingly deal with their bank digitally, so retaining expensive bank branches that are largely white elephants is an expense the industry would love to avoid.
The brilliance of the move by Westpac’s Anthony Miller is that it could pave the way to eventually cull rural branches further.
Meanwhile, the annual public hearings chaired by Ed Husic will probably take on a technology hue, with questions about the rollout of AI and how it will impact staff levels in Australia’s major banks, who are some of the biggest employers in the country.
Labor MP Ed Husic is chairing the economics committee’s banking inquiry.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“With banks increasingly deploying artificial intelligence and emerging technologies to transform and support their operations, the committee has – for the first time – made these areas a specific focus within the review’s terms of reference,” Husic said.
To date, there has been little evidence of meaningful bank job losses associated with AI. The Commonwealth Bank’s chief executive Matt Comyn famously botched his experiment this year with replacing some staff with chatbots. It backfired badly and was abandoned.
The 3500 staff cull recently announced by ANZ’s new chief executive, Nuno Matos, made no mention of AI; rather it was a more ordinary cost-cutting exercise.
The banks are more likely to highlight how AI is being employed to detect scams and monitor customer fraud events.
The annual appearance in Canberra is a performance test for the bank bosses to navigate – unpleasant as it may be.
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