Riverina town of Junee spared after major bank extends life of local branch

Commonwealth Bank (CBA) announced this week it has reaffirmed its commitment to the Junee branch until at least the end of 2026.

The bank branch was expected to close this year before the CBA announced it would press pause on a closure until the ongoing senate bank inquiry wraps up later this year.

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This week the National Australia Bank announced impending closures of its Gundagai and Temora branches just weeks before its Lake Cargelligo branch is also set to shut its doors.

It comes as the bank also announced it would not be closing any of its regional branches open until the end of 2026 at earliest.

In a CBA statement released on Friday, the bank confirmed this was a three-year extension on its current commitment.

Retail banking services group executive Angus Sullivan said Friday's announcement "ensures CBA continues to offer the largest branch network in the nation, providing customers across the country with a wide range of flexible banking options and locations."

"We look forward to working closely with regional communities over the next three years to refine how we better support and familiarise them with all the CBA banking services available," Mr Sullivan said.

But he also acknowledged that the way that people are banking is changing with more customers adopting digital and phone-based services.

"Through this time of change we want to support customers in regional areas who prefer banking in branch and so we will maintain our existing face-toface services in these communities," Mr Sullivan said.

Mr Sullivan said one of the ways the bank has responded to the digitisation of the economy and changing customer preferences has been the establishment of multi-channel branches.

"These branches allow us to maintain a strong physical presence across regional Australia, safeguard and upskill regional employment, and help CBA meet increasing customer demand for phone and digital banking services across the country," he said.

Since September 2021, 90 regional CBA branches have operated as multi-channel branches.

As part of the bank's regular review of our services, CBA said it will explore opportunities to transform additional regional branches into multi-channel sites where it makes sense to do so.

Multi-channel branches provide face-to-face services to local communities for the first part of the day, before closing to local customers at 1pm, at which point branch staff join their colleagues in CBA's Australian-based contact centres, helping to assist more than 1 million customers each month.

A CBA statement said its investment in Bank@Post leverages the significant infrastructure and trusted position of Australia Post to give CBA customers additional face-to-face banking services.

Bank@Post provides access to banking services to around 3,400 communities, including 1,800 rural and remote locations across the country.

The senate bank inquiry is set to hand down its report in December.

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