Banks have closed more than 1600 of these in recent years.
Almost three in four Australians think it's important to be able to access a brick and mortar bank.A Senate inquiry is investigating regional bank closures, their impact, and potential solutions.But new research from the comparison website Finder suggests that the majority of Australians still prefer to have the choice of going into a physical branch if they have a banking issue.
Almost one in five said they didn't mind not having a physical branch as long as online and phone support was available, while just 9 per cent said they didn't go into them, anyway.Alison Banney, money expert at Finder, said she wasn't surprised branches were still popular among Australians, despite the rise of internet banking.
But Ms Banney said many Australians were continuing to visit physical branches, with more than half of the respondents to Finder's survey having been in one in the last six months. "It's even worse when you're trying to deal with those instant chatbot things that just don't tend to work." "With one-third of Australia's population residing in regional Australia, the commercial decision of the big four banks in removing bank branches are impacting social and economic outcomes in rural communities and on individual citizens," the council wrote.
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