Banks extend commitment to keep Whangamatā hub open

Whangamatā’s Banking Hub will remain open for another three years.

Whangamatā’s Banking Hub will stay open for another three years following a trial which kicked off less than 12 months ago.

The hub, on the town’s main street, Port Rd, in the central business hub, opened in July 2023 as part of a New Zealand Banking Association regional hubs trial.

It provides services for Kiwibank, ASB Bank, BNZ, Westpac and ANZ customers from Mondays to Fridays between 10am and 2pm.

New Zealand Banking Association chief executive Roger Beaumont said the association had identified the town as part of the trial, a potentially new way of providing physical banking services in settlements that no longer had the local demand to support individual bank branches.

“The Whangamatā hub was part of the second phase of the trial, where we set up stand-alone banking locations where the participating banks came together to offer banking services,” Beaumont said.

The phase two hubs each had a smart ATM that accepted cash deposits for participating banks, a coin and note change service, a tablet for online banking, and a phone to connect with a bank’s contact centre, he said.

“The hubs have a concierge to help customers access the services; customers can also arrange meetings with a representative from their bank to receive advice or assistance with their banking needs.”

Beaumont said the trial found customers used the banking hubs less than they would single-brand bank branches, which was why the participating banks recently decided to renew their commitment not to close regional branches for another three years.

Five of the existing hubs, including Whangamatā, were included in the commitment, he said.

While the hubs trial was ending next month, and there would be no new hubs established, those five hubs would continue to operate on that basis, he said.

The first four regional banking hubs opened in late 2020 with banks deciding to extend and expand the trial in 2022.

Work on the regional banking hubs trial began in September 2019, with phase two launching in July 2022 – the trial finished in 2023.

“NZBA and the participating banks put a huge amount of work into developing the hubs trial. We are proud of what we delivered, and most of the hub network will remain,” Beaumont said.

“It showed there is real community support for regional banking. However, it also showed that, even with almost all banking services provided, the customer use for a multi-bank hub is lower than many single-brand bank branches.

“For those reasons, we believe regional New Zealand is better off if banks maintain their current branch networks for three years, instead of closing regional branches and replacing some of those branches with an alternative, such as hubs.”

The branch closure commitment remained the same as is currently in place and would apply to regions outside the council boundaries of the six major metropolitan areas of Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

It would not apply to Kiwibank agencies or cases where a branch needs to be closed due to earthquake strengthening, health and safety, or lease expiry.

The commitment covered the existing hubs, apart from Stoke and Ōpunake.

Whangamatā Banking Hub timetable