ONE of the most important Federal Government inquiries into welfare issues specific to regional Australia in decades handed down its final report a year ago this week.

WHEN does a bank cease to be a bank? Seven months ago, at a hearing of the Federal Government’s House Economics Committee in August 2024, Labor MP Tania Lawrence attempted to ask ANZ Bank chief executive Shayne Elliott about ANZ refusing to accept cash at the counter from customers.

The Federal Government has published a proposal for a cash mandate that will only apply to a legislated list of “essential” goods and services and give express permission to more than 97 per cent of businesses in Australia* to refuse to accept cash.

THE Senate inquiry into regional bank closures, which delivered its final report in May this year, was an important investigation by...

ABOVE: From ANZ's response to a customer complaint over the Katoomba closure dated September 6, 2024. JUST when it seemed ANZ’s attempts...

ABOVE: ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott after telling Economics Committee chairman Daniel Mulino for the second time that ANZ had...

IT is impossible to pinpoint an exact time when Australia’s big four banks turned on their regional customer base but May 24, 2024 will...

THE Commonwealth Bank has marked the Sunshine Coast again being named the fastest growing regional migration destination in Australia by...

IT may have taken 20 years but a Federal Government inquiry has finally made good on a warning that if the 'big four' banks did not...

OFFICIAL recognition of banking as an essential service, the end of self-regulation of the banking industry and a pathway forward for the...

COMMENT IF there was ever a time to take a close look at the relationship Australia’s major banks have with the word “trust” it is now....

After slashing NAB's regional branches by a third Ross McEwan is bailing before a senate inquiry into the closures reports. Miniscule...

DURING the COVID crisis, Australia’s major banks lobbied hard to be counted as an essential service so they could remain open during...

HEADLINES around Australia last week screamed out about bank closures. They were triggered by the release of the Australian Prudential...

THE chief executive of the Australian Banking Association Anna Bligh did not read a single submission to the 2021-2022 Regional Banking Taskforce she was a member of.

AT the end of two days listening to senate hearings investigating the impact of regional bank closures in Western Australia all I wanted...

THE Commonwealth Bank is at it again. While to be congratulated on its decision to put a three-year moratorium on regional branch...

THE National Australia Bank (NAB) has been pulling a swifty on customers that have lost branches since September last year, using...

WESTPAC should have been fronting up at the second hearing of the Senate inquiry into regional bank closures in Cloncurry this morning...

THE Commonwealth Bank is closing a branch in an area it has itself labelled one of Australia’s most popular destinations for regional...