1 February, 2023
NAB angers Clifton
Clifton is to be without a bank and the town is united in its anger as many claim the NAB has no sense of loyalty to customers or any sense of community responsibility.
National Australia Bank (NAB) announced it will be permanently shutting the doors of its King Street premises on Thursday, 20th April 2023.
Clifton Newsagency proprietor Kent Meacle who has been a NAB customer for 40 years voiced his disgust and anger at the closure in a manner characteristic of many Clifton business owners.
Mr Meacle saw the closure as part of a worrying bigger picture for the town, as loss of service facilities reduces the need for people to come to town.
He explained how the reduced medical services now available in Clifton mean people go to Toowoomba for medical attention and so have their prescriptions filled by a Toowoomba Pharmacy rather than in Clifton.
Loss of the NAB facility will have a similar knock-on effect, he said.
Kellie Brady of Nutrien Harcourts Real Estate in Clifton was scathing over the NAB closure.
“To say we’re disgusted is an understatement,” she said.
“They have forsaken our town with a blatant disregard for long time loyalty.”
Club Clifton hotel publican Kevin Harmon was so disappointed with the closure he seemed unable to express his feelings but admitted with an air of resignation that the closure was not unexpected, but he was still unhappy with the decision.
Mr Harmon had closed his Westpac accounts when that bank left town and now is faced with the same problem, but now there is no other bank.
Julie Blurton from the Clifton Jam Factory was also disappointed but seemed resigned to the closure while Janeen Maguire from Binnie Bowe Boutique in Clifton felt the bank had used financial figures from the Covid period of 2020/21 to justify the closure.
She felt these figures were not representative of the long term bank activity.
Wattles Rugby League Club President Amanda O’Halloran said the club had always had large deposits of money with NAB and expressed her feeling of abandonment and lack of loyalty from a bank the club had patronised for a long period of time.
NAB Retail Customer Executive, Melissa Morris said the closure was because of a drop in customers.
“Over the past few years, fewer customers are coming into branches to do their banking,” Ms Morris said.
“Just over 40 per cent of our Clifton customers have only visited the branch once in the last 12 months, and more than 77 per cent are already using other branches including our recently refurbished Clifford Gardens branch.
“The Clifton team will now be helping customers who need additional support with digital banking and also introducing them to the Bank@Post service in Edward Street.
“We will also have a community banker in the Bank@Post shop one day a week for eight weeks to assist customers transitioning to banking via Bank@Post.”
“Our business bankers will also continue to make regular visits to Clifton and surrounding the areas.”
Ms Morris confirmed no staff would be left without a job.
“It’s important to us that there will be no job losses as part of this change - our branch team will be provided new opportunities across NAB,” she said.
With the closure of Clifton, the closest NAB branches are in Pittsworth and in Warwick.
Curiously, in a ‘Fact Sheet’ released by NAB, the nearest alternative branch was listed as Clifford Gardens, which is further than Pittsworth and Warwick in both distance and travel time.
According to NAB, most Clifton customers who perform banking elsewhere are doing it at the Clifford Gardens branch.
Some services that had been provided by the Clifton NAB branch, including withdrawing cash, depositing cash and cheques and checking account balances using a PIN-enabled card linked to a NAB transaction account can be done at Clifton Post Office through Bank@Post.
This leaves Warwick Credit Union at Allora as the nearest bank branch to Clifton.
The closure of the Clifton NAB branch provides opportunity for other banks to step into the market.
As the bank with the closest branch and a commitment to the local area, Warwick Credit Union has a natural advantage.
A spokesperson for Heritage Bank said while there are no plans for the bank to expand to Clifton at this stage, Heritage is continually reviewing the
location of its existing branches while looking for new opportunities to support communities with their banking needs.
The situation facing Clifton business owners and residents is one faced by many rural towns around Australia and one that seems to have an air of inevitability.
Online shopping, internet banking and the lure of the big shopping malls such as Grand Central all contribute to the financial problems faced by small businesses in rural towns like Clifton.
As one Clifton business owner remarked, “The whole nation is moving to a city-centred focus and governments seem unwilling or unable to stop it.”
Another business owner said the closure of the NAB was “another nail in the coffin of the town.”
