THE Bendigo Bank is coming to help Berrigan which was left without a bank after NAB shut its outlet in early July.
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The Berrigan Shire this week agreed to a deal that will result in a Bendigo Bank agency open in its headquarters within six weeks.
The Bendigo Bank’s community branch manager at Coleambally, Chris Noack, initiated the move.
“When we heard the last bank in town had decided to withdraw we made contact and offered to help,” Mr Noack said.
“They are a small town, similar to Coleambally, and we saw a great number of locals were very passionate about their town and didn’t want to see services reduced any further.”
An existing council employee will provide banking services with the bank contributing to their wages through commissions on transactions.
Mr Noack said new security measures would be introduced along with a dedicated safe.
The bank is prepared to offer up to $5000 to cover the cost of modifications.
Mr Noack said a goal of $10 million in deposits and loans had been linked to the installation of an ATM.
“From the feedback I’m getting around town that $10 million will take no time at all, so I’m planning to install it at the same time (as renovations occur),” Mr Noack said.
Western Riverina Community Financial Services, which is the umbrella group for the Coleambally branch, will oversee the Berrigan agency.
It also runs Bendigo Bank sites at Hillston, Condoblin, Lake Cargelligo, Darlington Point, Hay and Jerilderie.
However, Mr Noack said there would be no objection to the Berrigan community operating the agency as a solitary enterprise in the future.
Council general manager Rowan Perkins said the deal had been welcomed.
“The community is pretty happy, they are the ones that have been pushing us for taking it on,” Mr Perkins said.
The biggest customer for the new agency will be the Berrigan Shire which had banked with the NAB.
The NAB told the shire it wanted branches to have 200 daily transactions and Berrigan’s only had 900 a month.
Since 1997, when ANZ departed from Berrigan, the NAB’s Chanter Street site had been the town’s lone bank.