Armaguard support key as bank branch, ATMs continue to plunge across Australia

More than half of Australia’s ATMs have closed in just eight years while the number of bank branches has plunged as customers increasingly go online, new figures show.

The abolition of $2 fees eight years ago, for using a rival bank ATM, has also made it much harder to withdraw cash with Australia’s near monopoly cash delivery company Armaguard on life support for another year.

The number of automatic teller machines across the country stood at 13,814 in June 2017 but as of June 2025, that number had plunged by almost 63 per cent to 5143, new Australian Prudential Regulation Authority data showed.

Bank branches have also been closing in droves, with the number across Australia plunging by 44 per cent from 5694 to 3205 over eight years.

During the past year alone, 155 bank branches have closed across Australia while 333 ATMs have been withdrawn from service as fewer customers use cash, and instead rely on tap-and-go and digital payments.

The Australian Banking Association argues that digital bank interactions had surged by 70 per cent during the past five years, with bank branch visits accounting for less than one per cent of customer interactions.

But chief executive Simon Birmingham said keeping Armaguard afloat was essential to ensuring Australians could still withdraw cash from fewer ATMs.

Armaguard, Australia’s largest currency transport business, received a $50 million bailout last year from the country’s big four banks after struggling with falling revenue amid increasing consumer preferences for digital payments over cash.

“Keeping Armaguard delivering cash and services has been important to being able to maintain existing ATMs,” Mr Birmingham told The Nightly.

Australia’s big banks and supermarkets this month agreed to protect Armaguard, owned by billionaire Linfox founder Lindsay Fox, from fee increases until September 2026.

“We’ve been working with Armaguard to ensure that they continue to deliver an important service that makes cash available around the country and we’re committed to continuing that work,” Mr Birmingham said.

“Major banks, major retailers are providing significant, additional financial support to Armaguard to make sure they’ve got the assistance between now and a pricing model coming into effect as soon as possible.”

Australia’s big bank commercial banks in September 2017 agreed to scrap $2 fees for customers who used a rival ATM.

Cash Welcome campaign manager Jason Bryce said that publicity stunt had led to the demise of bank-owned ATMs and was now squeezing Armaguard.

The decision meant cash deliverers like Armaguard received lower payments for their services from the big banks.

“The axing of the $2 fee for customers of other banks was a mistake,” he told The Nightly.

Canstar data insights director Sally Tindall said there was still a question mark about regional bank branches beyond 2027, despite more big city branches being closed during the past year.

“The big four banks did the right thing back in February by committing to keep regional branches open until at least mid-2027, but there’s still a huge question mark over what the longer-term future of these branches will look like,” she said.

Armaguard is struggling financially, despite having a 90 per cent share of Australia’s cash delivery market after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in 2023 allowed it to merge with Spanish rival Prosegur.

Refilling ATMs is becoming less lucrative with a Reserve Bank of Australia survey showing just 13 per cent of in-person transactions were done in cash in 2022.

A cash mandate is coming into effect in January requiring all businesses with a turnover of more than $10 million a year to accept banknotes, with small businesses exempt.