The Commonwealth Bank has closed 354 branches during the past five years and has plans to close down more three branches next month in populated areas of three major cities.
Despite making a record profit, Australia's biggest home lender has shut down a third of its branches since June 2018 when 1,082 were still operating.
A steep decline in the use of cash has also seen CBA remove 2,297 ATMs during that time, marking a 54 per cent plunge or a halving in the number of banknote dispensing machines.
The Commonwealth Bank is now planning to close down its Rundle Mall branch in central Adelaide, along with outlets at Coolangatta on the Gold Coast and Coogee in Sydney on March 1.
'After a recent review, we made the difficult decision to permanently close our Rundle Mall Adelaide, Coolangatta and Coogee branches,' a spokesman told Daily Mail Australia on Friday.
Bankwest, a Commonwealth Bank subsidiary, is also closing branches in Perth and regional Western Australia in coming weeks.
The Commonwealth Bank has closed 354 branches during the past five years and has plans to close down more branches next month in populated areas of three major cities
Customer demand at the Commonwealth Bank's Rundle Street Mall branch had fallen by 47 per cent during the past five years, with this branch located near other existing branches, including King William and Gouger streets in Adelaide's city centre.
The Coolangatta branch is near Tweed Heads in northern NSW and Elanora on the Gold Coast, with customer visits dropping by 29 per cent since 2018.
The Coogee branch near the beach has seen a 52 per cent drop in customer demand over five years, with customers also visiting the nearby Randwick, Maroubra, Bondi Junction and Westfield Eastgardens branches in Sydney's south-east.
But the Finance Sector Union's national secretary Julia Angrisano said the branch closures demonstrated how CBA put people before profits, with the Commonwealth Bank making a record net cash profit of $10.164billion in 2022-23.
'What a kick in the guts for our members working at these branches at the start of the year,' she said.
The branch closures will see five staff lose their job at Coolangatta, a popular tourist spot on the southern end of the Gold Coast by the Queensland border.
Another 13 jobs are going at the Rundle Mall, despite estimates of 800,000 people passing through every week.
But the Commonwealth Bank said 21 of the 22 affected branch employees at those three branches had been redeployed.
'We are also supporting the remaining staff member to find potential opportunities,' the spokesman said.
This is occurring as the Commonwealth Bank and its rivals scale back city branches so tellers no longer hand out cash.
'These closures should not be happening and it only demonstrates CBA's continual desertion of its 'bricks and mortar' branch network,' Ms Angrisano said.
'The CBA claims branches are shutting because of a reduction in over the counter transactions but the reality is they are forcing staff to move customers to digital banking by directing them to a computer terminal in the branch.'
The Commonwealth Bank told a parliamentary inquiry in September it had 728 branches, which was even less than the 741 figure for June 2023 contained in the bank's annual report.
That updated figure cited included Commonwealth Bank branches along with Bankwest subsidiary branches in Perth and regional Western Australia.
the colony waterfront closure of three more Commonwealth Bank branches and three more Bankwest branches would reduce the CBA Group tally to 722.
Bankwest last week announced it would close down two more branches, including its branch in Maddington in Perth's south-east and Kununurra in Western Australia's far north, on February 29 and April 18 respectively.
The Armadale branch in Perth's south-east closed on January 18.This is occurring less than two years after Bankwest closed its remaining east coast branches, making it a digital-only bank for those outside WA.
The Commonwealth Bank is now planning to close down its Rundle Mall branch in central Adelaide , along with outlets at Coolangatta on the Gold Coast and Coogee (pictured) in Sydney from March 1
Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn told a parliamentary inquiry into regional banking in September CBA's branch closures were mainly occurring in metropolitan areas, with CBA vowing no
regional branch closures until 2026.
In small towns like Laurieton on the NSW mid-north coast, CBA operates the only branch, with NAB closing in 2022, ANZ shutting in 2018 and Westpac withdrawing first in 2017.
This means customers with NAB, ANZ and Westpac have to drive 33km north to Port Macquarie to do their banking in person should they get scammed or have trouble with their banking app.
The Commonwealth Bank in Laurieton closes at 1pm Monday to Friday, giving customers a small three-and-a-half hour window to do their banking in person.
This is much earlier than the 4pm close for CBA branches in provincial regional centres and big cities.
Laurieton's median age of 67 is also significantly higher than the national median age of 38 in the 2021 Census, suggesting three of the big four banks aren't catering to an older demographic than is more likely to struggle with technology.
As recently as June 2018, the Commonwealth Bank had 1,082 branches.Back then, CBA had 4,253 ATMs but that has since plunged by 54 per cent to 1,956. Customer demand at the Rundle Street Mall branch (pictured) had fallen by 47 per cent during the past five years, with this branch located near other existing branches, including King William and Gouger streets in Adelaide's city centre
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia Group's 741 branches in June 2023, including its BankWest outlets in WA, comprised 20.6 per cent of Australia's 3,588 branches, based on Australian Prudential Regulation Authority data.
'We recognise some customers prefer over-the-counter banking and it's one of the reasons we're proud to maintain the largest branch network in the country,' the CBA spokesman said.
Its 1,956 ATMs make up 34 per cent of all Australia's 5,693 ATMs. In 2022, cash made up just 16 per cent of in-person transactions, less than half the 32 per cent level of 2019 before the pandemic, Reserve Bank data showed.