Start your own bank: fed up with your bank, or your branch has closed? Copy other communities and start your own. (Money: banking).(Australia)(Statistical Data Included)

Publication: Choice (Chippendale, Australia)

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COPYRIGHT 2002 Australian Consumers' Association

It's a story happening all over Australia: "We lost our last bank branch about two years ago. There's still a small agency at the post office but of course it's not the same," says Elizabeth from Murrumbeena in Melbourne.

Elizabeth travels to a neighbouring suburb to do her banking and shopping. The queues in the bank branches there have become longer: "On some occasions the queues have been virtually out of the door, which is annoying," she says. And the traders in her local shopping centre suffer: "From my observations, I'd say the shopping strip is quieter since the bank went," says Elizabeth.

Bank branch closures can go hand in hand with the decline of communities, especially in rural Australia. Usually residents shop where they bank. So no banking service can mean a downturn for local businesses and a generally pessimistic view about the future of the community.

This chilling picture was one of the main reasons for residents of Crow's Nest in south Queensland to set up a community branch: "Without a financial institution our town would be struggling," says Baden Brown, one of the directors of the community company behind the bank.

And they're not alone: all over Australia community banks are getting up and going.

We talked to people in three communities who invested time and effort to start `their own bank':

* Galston, a semi-rural community on the outskirts of Sydney.

* Nanango, a farming community less than two hours' drive inland from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

* Paraburdoo, a small community servicing an iron mine close to the Karijini National Park in Western Australia.

However, as banking is strictly regulated in Australia, communities can't do it all by themselves. Financial institutions need an authorisation under the Banking Act and must meet prudential standards overseen by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).

So all three communities found partners for their banking venture: the Galston Community Bank is a franchise of Bendigo Bank, Nanango a joint...

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