Australians who value payment choice or simply prefer using cash are being let down by bank and ATM closures that are limiting access to banknotes throughout the nation.
A report in the Herald Sun reveals four major banks—ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac—shut down 3,803 ATMs and 459 bank branches across Australia between 2019 and 2021. Victoria was among the worst hit, with Mornington Peninsula losing 11 branches, representing almost a third of its former total (31 percent). Melbourne’s inner city lost 21 branches and Warrnambool lost six. Overall, more than one in four ATMs have closed across the state since 2019.
In Melbourne, the Herald Sun interviewed two twenty-somethings who prefer using cash to pay for groceries and bills and are finding it harder to withdraw the necessary funds.
