By Luke Voogt
The pending closure of ANZ’s Belmont branch has angered customers and traders, who this week voiced concerns for the elderly.
Local promoter and bank customer Hugo Armstrong described the High St branch, which closes on 16 January, as “one of the busiest you’ll walk into”.
“I’ve got no problem with them closing branches where the population has moved on,” he said.
“But on the average day I reckon it’s busier than the one in the CBD – it’s flat stick. Surely the statistics tell you this branch absolutely pumps.”
The decision stunned Mr Armstrong, given the number of elderly shoppers in High Street.
High Street trader Vince Albanese agreed the closure would impact the elderly.
Travelling to ANZ’s other branches in Waurn Ponds or central Geelong would be too difficult for some Belmont pensioners, he said.
“They don’t use online banking, or they get their family to help them with it. If they’re on their own even switching banks is difficult.”
Older clients who lived in nearby retirement villages or had medical appointments in High Street relied on the bank, Mr Albanese said.
“You’ve got all the big medical centres here.”
Mr Albanese predicted most customers would switch to other major bank branches in the street following the closure.
“ANZ is the quietest of all of them,” he said.
“That said, it’s still significantly busy. Every time I’ve been there there’s never been a shortage of customers, that’s for sure.
“But if another one was to go it would become an issue.“
The decision was about the bank’s bottom line, Mr Albanese said.
But an ANZ spokesperson said an increasing number of customers using online banking had led to the closure.
Only seventeen per cent of customers at the Belmont branch visited it in person, with 66 per cent preferring to bank online, the spokesperson said.
“This has led ANZ to reshape the branch network in places like Geelong and Ballarat.”
The bank had hired additional staff at its Waurn Ponds branch about 4km away “to assist with this change”, the spokesperson said.
“These have been difficult decisions and we apologise for the inconvenience we know this will cause some of our customers.”
ANZ were supporting employees at the Belmont branch and “making every effort to find them redeployment opportunities”, the spokesperson said.
