Bendigo Bank’s plan to shut down agencies in Pyramid Hill and Cohuna will be confronted by a public protest in front of the bank’s Cohuna agency on Thursday at 12.15pm.
Organisers are hoping that between the two towns hundreds of people will join the rally to send a clear message to Bendigo Bank management and directors about the importance of local banking facilities.
With its agency set to shut at noon on July 20, Pyramid Hill will be financially isolated if the closures go ahead — there is not even an ATM in the town.
State Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh, who visited Pyramid Hill last week and will be at the meeting in front of the Cohuna agency at 85A King George St, said he had been “incredibly disappointed” by the bank’s decision and would be pursuing it further.
Mr Walsh conceded there was no guarantee the planned closures could be reversed, but said “you have to fight the fight”.
The looming closure has particularly rocked Pyramid Hill, as it immediately threatens the future of the town’s limited pharmacy service and the Filipino supermarket.
Mark Lacey has run the Bendigo Bank agency for the past eight years, in which time he has grown the business 400 per cent.
A fixture in the town after running its bakery for six years, and IGA for 12, he took up the banking agency as a new opportunity.
He said the bank wanted him to have the agency in an address of its own, so he purchased the building at Kelly St where, to offset costs, he leased space to the Cohuna pharmacy to run a regular service for Pyramid Hill locals, as well as the supermarket catering to the town’s strong Filipino population.
“But without the bank agency and its income, the other two businesses would not be viable and probably lost to the town,” Mr Lacey said.
“I just cannot understand the decision; the agency is doing a strong business and it is so important to so many people in the town.
“On March 28, the bank advised me it was suspending opening online accounts for security reasons, then two days later I got another letter to say a review by the bank had been completed and I would be terminated on July 31.”
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank regional manager Shaun Leech said the bank’s review “confirmed a significant, and continued, decline in financial transactions, lending and new account openings, which impacts the face-to-face operations and viability of our agency network”.
Mr Leech added it had been an “extremely difficult decision”.
While in Pyramid Hill last week, Mr Walsh said he was amazed how many people came into the agency in the 20 minutes he was there to express their support for Mr Lacey and his business.
“Several told me they had no idea what they would do next. There is no ATM in Pyramid Hill, and they have always used banks and always want to, and they can’t all travel to other towns for banking,” Mr Walsh said.
“Incorporated bodies, such as sports clubs, can’t have card accounts either, so if they have to travel to, for example, Kerang, to get cash, is that where they will get their drinks for the weekend, fill their petrol tanks, do some supermarket shopping?
“The ripple effects from this short-sighted decision will possibly smash the local economy in Pyramid Hill — and community banking is what Bendigo Bank was all about, people like these helped this bank get started. And this is their thanks.
“Mark Lacey concedes transactions are down a bit, but the extra help and advice he provides doesn’t show up on head office computers, but it provides his community with a valuable — and irreplaceable — service.”
Cohuna’s Bendigo Bank agency has a protest sign in its front door appealing to customers to “make your voice heard”.
The poster describes the closure as a corporate decision and reads “we are devastated”.
In asking people to make their voices heard the poster also asks them to come into the agency while it is open to speak to staff there.