Leeton's businesses say the closure of its ANZ branch will hurt the town in the long term.
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ANZ announced it's Leeton branch would close on September 29 in April.
At the time the bank said the closure was part of its strategy to focus more on digital and mobile banking services as in-person branches were no longer as necessary as they had been in the past.
However local business owners who bank with ANZ, many of whom who have always banked with ANZ disagree.
Dom Fondacaro, owner of La Fresco Caffè in Leeton says the closure of the Leeton branch was terrible for the town.
"I have to go to the branch regularly to get change and make deposits," Mr Fondacaro said.
"This is just terrible for the town, Leeton is missing out."
This is a sentiment shared by President of the Leeton Business Chamber Krystal Roden who told The Irrigator last month that whilst the writing was on the wall for the closure for a long time, the lack of human interaction from ANZ would be a detrimental loss to the town and business owners who bank there.
"Customers, especially those with business accounts like that personalised sort of banking experience," Mr Fondacaro said.
"Now if I want that I'll have to travel an hour to Griffith or an hour and a half to Wagga."
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Mr Wake says that ANZ recognises that the transition from a branch to mobile and online banking will be in particular difficult for customers in regional locations where they can be a greater travel burden and less reliable services overall.
"There has been a longer term trend that has seen our in branch transactions drop on average about 50 percent over the past four years" said ANZ's NSW general manager Michael Wake.
"We have provided a closure period of about six months to allow time for us to work with our customers on alternative banking methods, including online banking, mobile lenders and mobile banking," Mr Wake said.
There are a number of alternatives for business owners in Leeton available, including the Bank at Post service which allows business owners to make withdrawals, deposits and balance enquiries.
This however would force business owners to change to either NAB, Commonwealth or Westpac to conduct their banking and would restrict the times of banking activity to when the Leeton Post Office is open.
Leeton has four other banking options for business customers to utilise; Commonwealth Bank, Beyond Bank, Westpac and NAB.
However not all banks offer business banking options.
ANZ says it will employ teams of relationship bankers to visit business customers when needed for those directly affected by the closure of the Leeton branch.
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