The closures appear linked to a review of the community bank business model revealed by former Bendigo Bank chief executive Marnie Baker under questioning during an investor briefing in 2022, according to Banking Day. View Bendigo Bank - all available information in a full screen mapMs Baker was reported to have described community banks as “deposit roving franchises” and a “customer aggregator” for Bendigo Bank. Since 2014, 69 Bendigo Bank corporate sites and 37 community banks have been closed and one made cashless. The 38 Bendigo Bank branch and agency closures over the next six weeks, during a regional bank closures moratorium (that Treasurer Jim Chalmers forgot to include Bendigo Bank in), increase growing pressure on the Federal Government to officially respond to the final report from the Senate Inquiry into regional bank closures, tabled more than a year ago. Bendigo Bank can be thanked for giving the issue the impetus it needed to put this issue firmly back on the table.