by Sahar Foladi
The shutdown of the Bendigo Bank in Dandenong has raised the alarms for seniors using passbook accounts.
Its former shopfront on the lower ground of the council-owned civic centre at 225 Lonsdale Street Dandenong is now vacant.
It may have been the only and last bank branch to exit out of central Dandenong despite the rows of businesses on Lonsdale St as well as the Afghan Bazaar on Thomas Street.
Seventy-eight-year-old Doveton resident Jack has a passbook account with Bendigo Bank, a physical notebook with details of all banking transactions, which requires him to visit the bank for deposits or withdrawals.
After the bank completes and verifies transactions, customers have a record of them in their passbooks.
His half-an-hour walks each way to the bank from Doveton to Dandenong ended with disappointment when Jack found the bank sealed with ‘Temporarily closed.’
“I went in there one morning to do my banking and it had a temporarily closed sign and I went back another time, and it was closed.
“I started ringing the bank, they said there was a staff shortage, and it will eventually open again after Easter 2024, but it never did.”
He is not allowed to drive after a heart stroke seven years ago, which has also impacted his eyesight leaving him visually impaired.
Living in Doveton since the 1960’s he calls himself as a “Dandenong boy” for majority of his life.
He has relied on either his daughters or his landlady to drive him to the Narre Warren branch of Bendigo Bank to take out his pension payments.
“The bank has been there for a while I think it’s very strange that it suddenly shutdown.
“There must be a lot of people affected by it, they have closed a very important branch in a big city like Dandenong.
“The bank should be there regardless of my position.”
A Bendigo Bank spokesperson said the difficult decision came about after they saw a decline in the branch’s services.
“Following a review of evolving customer preferences, transaction activity and visitor numbers at the Bendigo Bank Dandenong branch, the Bank made the difficult decision to permanently close the branch in late May 2024.
“The decision also took into consideration the proximity of other branches in the surrounding area including Bendigo Bank Berwick, 72 High Street, Berwick, Community Bank Dingley Village, 11/79 Centre Dandenong Road Dingley Village and Community Bank Narre Warren South, 101 Seebeck Drive, Narre Warren.”
The spokesperson also mentioned customers being able to bank at Bank@Post at Australia Post in Dandenong Plaza, for some bank services such as cash deposits and withdrawals using a PIN number, cheque deposits and account balance enquiries.
However, this is not of convenience for people with passbook accounts such as Jack who don’t have any online accounts with the bank and manually need to access these services.
“I’m sure I’m not the only one in this position. I’ve lined up and there’s old people with walking sticks going in they must be locals too and have passbook accounts.
“It’s not just me that’ll be affected, banks should have sense to realise they’re necessity,” he said.
The Finance Union Sector had noted an uptake in number of bank closures and the national secretary of FUS Julia Angrisano says she’s “deeply disappointed of yet another bank closure.”
“We know that when a bank branch closes it negatively impacts staff, residents and businesses but it most badly affects the most vulnerable members in our community, including our elderly, First Nations customers, people whose first language is not English, and those who are not computer literate.
“Hundreds and thousands of vital jobs have been lost and elderly customers have been left with no access to vital banking services and not knowing how to access their cash.
“Meanwhile, banks have continued to rake in billions of dollars in profit while forcing frontline staff to transition customers onto digital banking, eroding their own job security.”
While there has been no discussions about the future of the building yet, a council spokesperson has said it’ll work to attract businesses while there
“Council continues to work in partnership with the State Government on the Revitalising Central Dandenong project, which includes the proposed $600 million Capital Alliance development in the Foster Street precinct.
“Council will develop a new Economy and Place Strategy and an Investment Attraction Program which will consider future opportunities to attract new businesses to provide appropriate goods and services to meet the needs of our diverse community.”
