I’m a St George Bank customer.

Given the proposed merger, it seems that soon I’ll be a Westpac customer, despite what Westpac management are saying.

During yesterday’s briefing, Ms Kelly was adamant the branch network would be maintained, saying even when a St George branch and a Westpac branch were side by side in the same street, they stay open.

C’mon, get real. It would be irresponsible of any bank’s management to do something like that. And remember what happened to the Bank of Melbourne? Yup, gobbled up by Westpac.

If management is at all competent, inefficient operation on that scale just doesn’t last in a commercial environment.

Amusingly, I went into the St George Collins St branch a month or two back to deposit a cheque. At the time they’d installed a ticket system for getting service with a teller. And had a bloke out the front showing people how to use the ticket machine. (Take a ticket for the desired transaction, wait for your number to be called up.)

The guy was so enthusiastic that he pulled a ticket out of the machine for me as I walked in the door.

But I was depositing a cheque, so I didn’t need a ticket — I’d use the fast deposit envelope and box.

I went off to fill in my envelope, and he was left standing with the extraneous ticket.

Next time I went in there, he was gone.