The company has long flagged its ambition to cut its headcount by 20 per cent compared with 2020 levels by 2024 to get costs under control. At its 2022 financial year results, Westpac said it had cut about 12 per cent of the roles that it was planning to.
Finance Sector Union national secretary Julia Angrisano condemned the cuts and said it would mean the remaining staff would have to “do more with less”.
“To deliver these cuts in such a callous manner amid one of the worst cost-of-living crises we have ever experienced is a blow staff and their families cannot afford,” Ms Angrisano said. “It’s just not good enough and the FSU will be fighting back against this appalling and short-sighted decision.”
She said the bank had also moved to close five more branches in NSW and Victoria by mid-July.
Westpac was the first big bank to respond to this month’s Reserve Bank interest rate increase, saying on Tuesday that it would lift its variable home loan rates by 0.25 of a percentage point from June 20.
ANZ, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, and Commonwealth Bank followed suit on Friday afternoon with similar increases.
Richard Fennell, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank chief customer officer, said the company understood this would “put increased pressure on borrowers”.
“Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has always and will continue to, carefully consider the impact rate rises have on all of our customers. While our customers are generally in good shape, we have a team standing by to help with any concerns they may have,” Mr Fennell said.
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and CBA are the only ones so far to increase the interest rates on savings accounts. ANZ and Westpac have said they are still reviewing their options in this regard.
RateCity research director Sally Tindall said this was “not good enough”.
“CBA has done the right thing and passed on the entire rate hike to every one of its savings customers, which is fantastic to see,” she said.
“This will hopefully put pressure on the other big banks to reassess their savings rates and pass on full hikes. At this stage, both Westpac and ANZ have not announced a single rate hike for their savings customers.“