The Finance Sector Union (FSU) will be looking for commitments from the Westpac Group that it's going to keep both its Westpac and St George brands at Dubbo after it "co-locates" the pair at one site.
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Westpac confirmed on April 1 its Dubbo branch would leave the building it has operated in for a century, and move in with St George later this year under a new model that would have two bank brands in one location.
Westpac says the change will help it to retain a face-to-face service and connection to the community at a time when customers are choosing to visit branches less.
FSU NSW-ACT branch local executive secretary Joanne Nava has been scrutinising the financial institution's decision.
"We're disappointed obviously that they've decided to close the Westpac branch and co-locate with St George in Dubbo," Ms Nava said.
"We believe they're profitable enough and given their multi-brand strategy to continue to operate two branches, we want to obviously get commitments from the bank that they're going to continue that multi-brand strategy, to continue with the Westpac brand and the St George brand."
The union official reported Westpac had advised there would be no job losses as a result of the move, which she said was pleasing to see.
But Ms Nava anticipated the co-location would pose some tests.
"We think there will be some challenges, and we'll have to continue to monitor that and talk with our members, but there will obviously be some challenges with that as customers get used to going into a branch that's got a separate teller window if it's St George, or a separate teller window for Westpac," Ms Nava said.
"So there will be some challenges that we'll have to work closely with our members to make sure they get taken into account.
"We would expect there might be some change in customer behaviour as well, so we'll have to monitor that."
Westpac Group is rolling out the new two-bank branch model, already operating in Renmark, South Australia, and Darwin and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, to Dubbo and seven other regional centres.
Last month it also confirmed it was "working through proposed changes" for "potential closures" at 40 locations, 39 of which were metro, but said the locations were not confirmed.
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Faye Wheeler
I have been a journalist for more than a decade and in that time I have been keeping Daily Liberal readers up to date about issues affecting them and what's happening in their community. Throughout my career I have covered a range of rounds and most recently I have been focusing on the business round.
I have been a journalist for more than a decade and in that time I have been keeping Daily Liberal readers up to date about issues affecting them and what's happening in their community. Throughout my career I have covered a range of rounds and most recently I have been focusing on the business round.
