As a long-term customer of what has now been branded the People’s First Bank, I cannot help but feel disappointed at the changes this financial institution has made over time. 

I have been a customer of this organisation since it was the NT Credit Society in the 1980s. When we came to Darwin in 1987, it was refreshing to go into what became the NT Credit Union and experience personalised service and the warmth extended to clients by staff. 

Fast-forward to 2025. Multiple amalgamations and name changes have grown the Credit Society I first knew into a monolith. Services are increasingly online, and personalised services are on the way out. In the NT, branches are closing, the hours of remaining branches are reducing, and ATMs are fast disappearing.

These changes, resulting from modernisation, focus far less on people and personalised service than was once the case.

And that is everywhere