On 27 March, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) will release the first results of a new data collection, which provides detailed information about the face-to-face and electronic service points made available to the Australian community by authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs).

This is a detailed listing of the banking points of presence that are available to Australians and will substantially improve the quality of information available to policymakers and commentators alike. Over time, these new data will track changes in the location of these service channels with a high degree of accuracy. The new data set presents a detailed and accurate picture of the banking service points available to the Australian community.

The new "Points of Presence Return" requires banks, building societies and credit unions to describe the services they offer and list their service channels, including branches, by location. The town or suburb, and the postcode and state in which the services are available, are individually identified. All information collected by APRA from ADIs will be published on APRAs website (www.apra.gov.au/Statistics/Points-of-Presence.cfm).

While not part of its prudential responsibilities, APRA was asked to develop the collection as part of the Federal Governments response to the report Regional banking services: Money too far away? prepared by the House Standing Committee on Economics, Finance and Public Administration. The Points of Presence Return is a response to calls from the community and government for better information about access to banking services, particularly in regional and rural areas.

It is important to recognise that the new collection is a substantial departure from the older "Branches and Agencies" survey in use prior to 2001. Only banks completed the old return and there were no guidelines as to what was a branch or agency and how locations were defined as metropolitan or elsewhere.

The focus is now on the provision of a broad range of banking services. Because the data set discloses the location of each service point of each deposit-taker, this new survey will be much more useful than the previous survey for analysing access to financial services.

For further information contact:

Gloria Peterson Public Affairs Manager 02 9210 3385 or 0419 250 286