Horse 3196 - I Am Completely Surrounded By No Banks

Tell me what you see here. 

Companies providing a useful service in exchange for the money that they make? No.

People?! No.

Bustling trade? Actually, yes.

This quiet corner of Westpoint in Blacktown, is the former home of the Commonwealth Bank, the ANZ Bank, and the National Australia Bank. While you do not see people in this shot, and while you do not see these companies providing a useful service in exchange for the money that they make, what you do see is a very rudely bustling trade with these three banks making money hand over fist. When the National Australia Bank has as their slogan that they "nab - more than money", I believe them.

Once upon a time in the land that they call the past, which is a land that nobody can return to, there stood an unwritten contract between depositors and banks that if we deposited our money with the bank, in return for us lending the banks money, they would pay us some dribbling pittance which they call 'interest' (despite them taking very little interest indeed), and provide basic banking services which might include letting us get some of our own money back occasionally. Those days appear to have passed.

These three banks, all of whom appear in the top ten of the ASX200 and all of whom appear multiple times in the ASX200 due to other securities listings, have such utter disdain for us the general public, that they can't even bother to have branches and shopfronts so that we might do basic banking things. So very strong is the banks' commitment to making super-super-profit, that even the ATM machine machines which stood here, and indeed throughout shopping centres have been either removed entirely or replaced by black ATM machine machines which have the audacity to charge us for the privilege of getting our own money back. 

The irony which is not lost upon me, is that in the middle of a housing crisis and rent crisis, which the banks aided and abetted like a pack of thieves, has forced rents up so far that not even they can afford to rent the space necessary to do their own business. Guess what? They're fine with that. Because being unable to afford the space, means that they have dumped many of their former employees out into the streets like the pieces of refuse scum that they clearly think we all are. If you don't rent premises, you don't have to employ people; and since banks' profits exist because they already have our money on deposit, then not renting premises and not employing people is free profit for them.

Online banking, which was sold to us as a convenience was very very convenient for the banks, as they not only found a profitable way of employing less staff but we the general public have all become de facto unpaid interns for them on zero hours and zero pay contracts.

This open disdain for the general public isn't just expressed in places like Blacktown which is way way west of the Red Rooster Line but in the idle rich suburbs like Mosman and Neutral Bay where I work. The NAB has closed branches at Mosman, Neutral Bay, North Sydney, Balgowlah; which means that the nearest branch is actually at Wynyard, on the other side of the harbour. The Commonwealth Bank operates a business only branch in Mosman, St George has closed its branch at Neutral Bay; the list goes on and on.

Perhaps what is really insidious about this is that in the modern world, it's kind of really difficult to go through life and not use any banking "services" at all. Wage payers are not obligated to pay you in cash and if you want to do anything like pay bills, buy large capital items like equipment, cars and houses, you are almost chained to the banking system in some way. The amount of value that the banking sector adds to the economy is also questionable. Essentially the banking sector lives entirely in the margin between borrowing money from depositors for practically no cost and then lending it out to people, who they will then charge interest to. That interest is paid back with the proceeds of actual real work being done in the world.

So when banks close branches and shop front, not only do they actively show by demonstration that they think that we the general public are all scum, but our money does not stink so that's okay. What's pathetic by its pathos, is that recently I got a letter from the Commonwealth Bank informing me that I had a new "Relationship Manager". In their form letter, they told me that they would "love to have a cuppa and a chat" sometime. Of course the unspoken irony is that my local branch closed years ago, and that they only address listed on the letter was a PO Box. Unless the expect me to have tea with someone inside a PO Box, then this is physically impossible.