BANK of Queensland is defending its much-trumpeted strategy of using franchised bank branches to expand interstate against an attack by disgruntled franchisees in the key NSW market.
Some owner-managed branch (OMB) operators are preparing legal action as the dispute flares.
BoQ has already terminated agency agreements for common operators of the Maroubra Junction and Hurstville branches in Sydney, citing “serious threats” made against the bank.
Two days ago, the operators of the Castlereagh Street branch in the CBD were also removed in circumstances the bank says were unrelated.
Representatives of the OMBs would not comment.
However, BoQ retail banking boss Donna Quinn explained the action against the Maroubra Junction and Hurstville branches in a June letter marked “private and confidential”.
The letter, a copy of which has been obtained by The Australian, says the two OMBs had “issued demands that the bank meets with them to discuss issues other than their own and have made some serious threats”.
“They have also disseminated incomplete information which is misleading about the network, and on the performance of individual OMBs,” Ms Quinn says.
Ms Quinn’s assertions were strongly rejected by sources in the OMB network.
They said there had been a request for a group meeting with BoQ chief executive David Liddy and others, but there was no “demand” and the purpose was to address issues that would help create a sustainable business model.
The bank, though, had refused to meet the OMBs as a group, and retaliated against some of the agitators by terminating their agencies.
A BoQ spokesman said the OMB system was a “major platform for future growth which has been extraordinarily successful”.
“But unfortunately, at any given time, there are three or four out of 160 in total that we are dealing with,” he said.
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