Attributable to Krissie Jones, NAB Retail Executive:

Over the last few years, we’ve seen the single largest transformation in banking in Australia’s history as more of us choose to bank digitally.

Our customers now have banking technology at their fingertips, through their device and more than 93% of customer transactions now take place online.

We acknowledge that big change is not always easy and reshaping our branch network sometimes requires difficult decisions.

These decisions are made with the community and our customers in mind while also taking into account a broad range of factors like the number of customers visiting our lower traffic branches, our ability to staff our branches and how we ensure a consistent level of customer service in person and online.

That’s why we’ve invested more than $70 million in 51 regional towns across Australia in the last three years, with more than $30 million more planned for this year. These updates are taking place or have been completed in locations like Mildura, Rockhampton, Dalby, Emerald, Thursday Island, Albany, Nagambie, Launceston, Corowa, Tamworth, Mudgee and Sale.

Where we make the difficult decision to close a branch in a regional location, we will ensure our customers have access to Bank@Post through our 10-year partnership with Australia Post so they can choose to bank in person. Bank@Post provides a network of more than 3,500 locations across Australia where people can choose to do their banking in person.

Importantly, there are no job losses for our people – our colleagues are offered alternative roles within the bank.

NAB will work constructively with the Senate Committee Inquiry. We will be continuing our branch reshaping process during the Committee’s deliberations in 2023, which will include closures, consolidations and new investments to meet our customers’ needs.