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St.George and Westpac in Orange to merge
August 9, 2023
By Peter Holmes
St.George Bank at 183 Summer Street will soon be closed, with staff moving down the road to share the building occupied by its sister organisation Westpac at 195 Summer Street.
The current Westpac branch will be refurbished before the relaunch, Westpac told The Orange News Examiner in a statement on Wednesday night.
"Westpac Group is investing around $1 million in upgraded banking services and amenities in Orange," a spokesperson for the bank said.
"From 4 October, this site will provide a better banking experience for our customers including additional service points to support customers, a Cash Exchange Machine and increased customer amenities."
The upgraded branch will have video conferencing and iPad facilities.
The bank said customers would be "welcomed at the new site by staff they already know from both our St.George and Westpac teams in Orange".
In May 2022 Westpac and St.George merged in Dubbo, with around $2 million spent upgrading the bank.
Westpac, which owns St.George, didn't state whether there would be job losses in Orange.
Last July The Australian Financial Review reported that Westpac was planning to merge around 100 St.George and Westpac branches around Australia over an 18-month period.
Westpac CEO Peter King said at the time that co-located branches would “improve the economics of the branch network, while maintaining the access to the network”.
In its half-yearly results for the six months to March 2023, Westpac recorded a $4 billion profit, up 22 percent. The bank has taken full advantage of the Reserve Bank's 12 rate rises, siphoning off a little more cream for itself.
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