Another person who is currently doing a photo a day gallery mentioned that she takes a "banker" shot each morning in case the opportunity to take another one doesn't arise during the day.

I may have taken that suggestion too literally.

Of course, I jest. There is as usual a story here. (There would need to be, this is pretty damn ordinary compared to yesterday's shot.)

In Australia there are 4 major banks (plus a bunch of smaller ones). In order of size, the so called "4 pillars" are:

• Commonwealth, the former national government bank (privatised between 1991 and 1996), which is far and away the largest. Its main subsidiaries are Bankwest, Colonial First State, CommInsure, and broker of choice for retail stock market investors, Commonwealth Securities alias Commsec.


• Westpac, which is by far the oldest, having been established as the Bank of NSW in 1817. Its main subsidiaries are St George Bank (a former permanent building society), Bank of Melbourne and Bank SA. (A building society is, or was, a mutual institution which borrowed from members, and lent money for home loans to other members back in the 1950s to 1980s. Depositors could usually get a higher interest rate than they could from banks. Loans therefore cost more for borrowers compared to a loan from a bank, but there was a better chance of getting a loan in the first place. Few if any exist (as such) any longer, having converted to banks in the late 80s and 90s.) Disclaimer: I'm a shareholder.


• Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited alias ANZ, in my experience the most useless pillock of a bank it has ever been my misfortune to have dealings with. Disclaimer: I am neither a shareholder nor a masochist. In my view there is probably a significant overlap between the two.


• National Australia Bank (or "NAB"), which I see as the little try-hard that can't quite figure out what it wants to be, other than taken seriously. I say that as a shareholder. It is an understatement to say that its forays into overseas banking haven't been wholly successful. Somebody really thought it was a good idea to set up operations in Athens. Yes, as in the capital of the Greek economy. Surprise, surprise it closed 5 years later. Its overreaching global aspirations are how I ended up for a time owning a part of a bank in Yorkshire England after NAB threw in the towel and floated it. I don't even speak Yorkshirian.

Back in the 20th Century the first three of those at least had a branch in pretty much every major shopping centre, urban or rural, in Australia. (Until a merger in 1982 the former National bank was mostly regional in scope.)

By 2010, that was for the most part still true. Since maybe 2015, however, all 4 of the majors have been burning their branches like it's bonfire season. In Thirroul the former Commonwealth is now a pilates studio. The former ANZ is… I'm not sure what's there right now. I can't recall whether there was a full Westpac branch there, but there was a St George one which is now a hair studio.

In Corrimal the Westpac was in Corrimal Village (this centre) before moving across the road, and then closing in 2023. The NAB branch? It's now a display showroom for a new housing development. Commonwealth… well, amazingly that's still there.

There are now no Westpac or St George branches in the 50km between Campbelltown and Wollongong, which is a none too pleasant drive. Neither of them open on Saturdays because there is "no demand", so we are told. Well, other than people lined up out the door at the old St George branch in Shellharbour (which is now closed) on a Saturday morning. The St George branch in Wollongong was closed and "merged" with the Westpac branch a few hundred metres down the street. The result? Queues out the door and into the street at pretty much any time of day because of the "lack of demand" for in-branch services. So we are told.

All that is left in many shopping centres are smaller banks and financial institutions. Some are cooperatively owned like Greater Bank, a former building society. The IMB (the former Illawarra Building Society) also has a branch which is a few metres to my right. The unique selling point for such institutions is personal service, BUT, and this is the key issue, that service is costly. Rent and human staff do not come cheap. IMB had 41 branches in 2010 and surprisingly has a few more than that now. Something will probably have to give eventually, and I don't know whether there will still be two bank branches here should I return here in 5 years' time.

Another issue at play is changing payment methods. In Australia cheques will be dead by 2030. There is a steady and ongoing campaign in some quarters to phase out cash as well. The thought of that should fill everyone with dread. Granted I don't use cash very often for multiple reasons (one of which is that it's easier to track my spending when it goes onto a card), but I carry it so when the EFTPOS machine is down at a regular café (as it often is), I can still pay for my purchase. And of course in return for using a card I get near valueless Qantas Frequent Flyer points, but let's not get started on THAT. (But if you really, really want to, I strongly recommend reading Joe Aston's book "The Chairman's Lounge", which is an excellent read by an excellent writer. It's a fascinating insight into politics and business in Australia, with special emphasis on the part that Qantas has played. It isn't a hatchet job, but it pulls no punches.)

There is an often forgotten side-effect to the reduction of cash in the economy. We forget that it costs money to move cash around. If it's in demand everywhere and in large volumes, that's not a problem because the cost is shared widely, making the cost per unit of cash moved lower. When the volume reduces, it becomes an expensive exercise on a per-unit basis. In Australia we are down to just one cash transport company, Armaguard. And there are concerns that it too may be facing insolvency.

If it goes out of business, then there go cash payments, ATMs, and most likely, eventually, more bank branches.

Watch this space. I'll meet you back here in 5 years.