Customers want access to bank branches, says EPAM report

Despite the growing trend of bank branch closures across the nation, a new report shows that 59% of Australians would not be comfortable about banking with a provider that has no local branches.

The survey of 1,000 Australians, conducted by US software company EPAM in October, is part of EPAM Continuum Consumer Banking Report 2024.

The fourth annual EPAM report covers 9,000 banking customers in Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the US and UK, studying customer satisfaction, banking services, in-branch banking and AI banking.

The Australian report, which can be downloaded from the EPAM website, shows that despite most bank customers (75%) knowing they can access bank services via a mobile app or eBanking, the overwhelming majority still want access to in-person services with 82% of respondents saying they had used a physical bank branch in the last year, with 21% doing so at least monthly.

Customers used a variety of channels for their different banking needs, the EPAM report revealed, with the main reasons for using branches being deposits (38%) and receiving cash 23%, while banking apps were favoured for making payments (54%) and checking account details (47%), which were also the main reasons for customers using bank websites.

Overall, four fifths of Australians (81%) said they were happy with their current bank account. This happiness was driven by great customer service (54%), a strong reputation with the wider public (33%) and providing innovative digital banking services (31%).

Read the full article here.

Read the full 2024 Consumer Banking Report here: https://www.epam.com/insights/research/2024-banking-report