Battle of Kim and Goliath as bank closes amid loophole

Katoomba is two hours from Sydney by train, sits in the middle of a vast national park and, as local Kim Grace puts it, "all I can see is bloody bush". But the NSW Blue Mountains town is not technically considered regional, excluding it from a moratorium on ANZ country branch closures. The community of 8200 will lose its ANZ branch in October, just months after the bank made a promise not to close any regional branches for three years. The closure will force customers to travel 100km west to Bathurst or 50km east to Penrith for face-to-face banking. "They're just treating us like nothing and I got really, really angry about it," Mr Grace, who lives in nearby Mount Victoria, told AAP. The legally-binding commitment to spare regional branches from closure was one of several conditions set by the federal government when it approved ANZ's acquisition of Suncorp in June. In light of the agreement, ANZ halted plans to close branches in Bega, NSW, and Portland in Victoria. Katoomba's shut down will go ahead on October 23 because it is considered part of Greater Sydney under an Australian Bureau of Statistics classification. A spokesman for ANZ said it was supporting Katoomba branch customers, making them aware of other services like ATMs, phone banking and community-based bankers. "Transactions in our branches nationally have halved over the past five years," the spokesman said. "Today just one per cent of all transactions are done over the counter and almost four million customers use our mobile banking app." But Mr Grace said many in the community didn't buy that rationale. He launched a Change.org petition to halt the closure in May, which has attracted more than 15,000 signatures. "We need our banks to show us a bit of support, we're as Australian as anywhere," he said. "Katoomba is a massive tourist town and what does it say to tourists that even our banks are closing?" Federal Labor MP Daniel Mulino asked ANZ executives about the various closures last month. "It's an awkward one, I imagine in those communities they see a commitment and it would be jarring," Dr Mulino said during a parliamentary hearing. Executives also confirmed the closure of a branch in Murwillumbah, in the NSW Northern Rivers, due to flood-related mould in the building. The bank is considering opening in another location after that branch shuts in December. Bank closures are a point of contention in much of regional Australia, where 798 branches have shut in the six years to June 2023. The rapid shift has left an estimated 600 towns without a bank, including several prosperous mining and farming locations. A year-long inquiry in May recommended the federal government urgently develop a mandatory code of conduct requiring meaningful community consultation and a banking regulator to have veto power over closures.