Entry No.73c

IT Writers Awards

Whilst most Australians would still prefer to conduct banking transactions in a branch rather than over the Internet the recent onslaught of increased over-the-counter transaction fees will see the tables turn, putting the Australian public just where the banking behemoths want them - online.

"Increasingly, higher over-the-counter transactions meant consumers were forced to go to an alternative distribution level, at which time banks closed branches and relocated staff," the Finance Sector Union's (FSU) national secretary, Tony Beck, told ZDNet.

Beck describes the banks' behaviour as a "charade".

"Banks are saying that all they're doing is responding to consumer behaviour. They've put a huge spin on it [saying] it's what the consumer wants," Beck said.

Consumer banking information site BankChoice.com.au agrees that customers favour face-to-face interaction with bank staff.

"Branches remain the main place people do banking," BankChoice product manager Lisa Montgomery told ZDNet.

Bankchoice conducted a one-week poll in July that asked the public when they last went into a branch to do personal banking.

Eighteen percent said they couldn't remember, 20 percent said in the last 3 months, 19 percent had gone into a branch in the last month and 41 percent had done so in the last week.

However, Montgomery believes if the poll was repeated now, following the aftermath of the National Australia Bank's and Westpac's fee restructuring, we'd already see "a transition of people maximising the availability of [the online] service rather than going into a bank and being charged exponentially".

However, "it's a hook, line and sinker thing," Montgomery added. "Historically [banks] did exactly the same thing when they introduced ATMs." Now they're luring people online "with no fee or a low fee, then they'll gradually increase the fees."

1000 customers sign up to NAB's Internet banking service daily and its online banking customer base has more than doubled in the last year, recently surpassing the 300,000 mark.

NAB recently announced it will cut back 100 branch outlets, at the same time as upping its over-the-counter transactions by a dollar - now charging customers AU$3 for a transaction that costs the bank just AU$1.50 to process.

Although banks claim that Internet transactions are a negligible cost and will be priced appropriately, Beck says that sources within banks have told the FSU that the costs of actually getting online banking systems up and running are hugely expensive.

"Banks will have to come clean down the track about huge development costs," Beck said, when we will a dramatic increase in Internet fees.

The Australian Consumers Association said there's widespread consumer concern about banking fees, particularly with "very high profits in the banking sector".

Every time bank fees are increased the treasurer comes out and says he'll ask the banks to explain, ACA's finance policy officer Louise Petschler said. "However, the government has never acted on any of its comments."

Petschler believes it's time for the government to create a regulatory response to what has become a real affordability issue.

"The government should give the ACCC the authority to monitor bank fees to ensure [there's some sort of] monitoring mechanism in place," Petschler said.

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