Bankwest is an Australian digital bank based in Perth, Western Australia. It was founded as the Agricultural Bank of Western Australia in 1895 by the Government of Western Australia being renamed the Rural and Industries Bank in 1944, and Bankwest in 1994 before being privatised. After a period of being a listed company on the Australian Securities Exchange, it was taken over by the Bank of Scotland, and since 2008 has been a subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank.
Having expanded into the Eastern states in the 1980s, it closed the last of these branches in October 2022. The remaining 60 branches in Western Australia were all closed by the end of 2024 with 15 of them being converted to Commonwealth Bank branches. Bankwest then became an online bank only.
History
Agricultural Bank era
In 1895, the Government of Western Australia established the Agricultural Bank of Western Australia as a rural lender to support the state's farming industries.[1]