Comment: There is very little creative thinking going on as a predictable debate muddles along over regional branch closures. A Senate committee is looking at this practice. Again.  Only the banks that are closing bank branches anywhere they like and almost any time they like are defending the practice.   Everybody else is whinging.   There are two broad palliatives to this pain.  The first and the easiest is to somehow make Australia Post’s agency banking services a better, and more often used, option. Possibly with banks attaching salaried bankers to numerous Post outlets.  The second, which the big banks and the ABA have been mumbling about, is a shared brand bank branch format.  But you cannot compel banks to open branches any more than you can credibly intervene to stop them closing branches. Then there are the hundreds and thousands of towns and suburbs that have lost their last bank branch. Typically towns weather the disappointment of losing their bank.  When 99.95 per cent of transactions are digital, everyone has to adapt.  The market is going to have to sort this one out.