Krissie Jones, NAB’s Executive General Manager,in an open letter to the community, has thanked the Narooma community for inviting NAB representatives to their recent community meeting at Club Narooma to talk about the future of the local NAB branch.
In the open letter Ms Jones writes "In our conversations with the community, your passion for your town is clear, and that really came through."
"Importantly for me, it was a chance to listen and hear directly from you about how important the branch is in your community, how we can better support elderly customers, and our business customers. Listening to our customers and the community is something everyone at NAB is committed to because it’s how we will learn and improve so we can be a better bank."
"Listening also enables us to make better decisions and on the night I promised to come back to you about what the plans are for our Narooma branch."
"We know the community wants the NAB Narooma branch to stay open. We want to stay in the Narooma community too, but the way our customers are banking is changing rapidly. It’s a reality that the business at this branch has consistently declined over the past few years."
"To keep the branch open, we need your support. We will be re-assessing the NAB Narooma branch in January 2020. If we can sufficiently grow the business at the NAB Narooma branch together between now and January 2020, we would like to continue to have a NAB branch in Narooma."
"This is not something NAB has done before, but we know we need to do things differently to be a better bank and we are supportive of trying this new approach with your community."
Ms Jones concluded "We are looking forward to working together and ask the Narooma community to back us as we work on turning this branch around. Our local NAB leaders, Marnie and Paul, are keen to work with our existing and new customers on doing this together. " The Hon. Dr Mike Kelly Am Mp Member For Eden-Monaro said of the announcement "I welcome news that National Australia Bank (NAB) intend to keep their Narooma branch open until 2020." "I was pleased to add my voice to the strong community campaign led by Jason Hextell and Phil Constable, who spent many hours ensuring that NAB heard the voices of the people in Narooma, which resulted in NAB’s decision to keep the branch open. "In particular, I was pleased to see my direct intervention with NAB proved successful. NAB will start with a community meeting that will be held next week to discuss how they can work with the community to ensure the viability of the Narooma branch into the future. Banks are the backbone of thriving and prosperous communities, and it is good to see that the NAB has agreed to work with the people of Narooma to maintain their local branch now and into the future." Dr Kelly concluded.
