Authorised deposit-taking institutions points of presence explanatory notes
Explanatory notes
Introduction
APRA was asked to develop the Points of Presence data collection as part of the Federal Government’s response to the report Regional banking services: Money too far away prepared by the House Standing Committee on Economics, Finance and Public Administration. The data collection answered calls from the community and Federal and State governments for better information about access to banking services, particularly in regional and rural areas. The first release of the annual Points of Presence statistics occurred in June 2001.
APRA subsequently consulted on the ongoing usefulness of the Points of Presence statistics in 2015. After consideration of the submissions, the first release of the revised annual ADIs' Points of Presence statistics occurred for the June 2017 reporting period.
The ADIs' Points of Presence statistics are a detailed annual listing of the banking services provided to Australians by authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs). The statistics cover five types of service channels: face-to-face points of presence offering a branch level of service, other face-to-face points of presence, Bank@Post, automatic teller machines (ATMs), and EFTPOS machines. The individual points of banking presence are categorised using the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS), which classifies the locations according to remoteness.
Australian Statistical Geography Standard
The Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) is the Australian Bureau of Statistics' (ABS) geographical framework, replacing the Australian Standard Geographical Classification from July 2011. It is a hierarchical classification system of geographical regions and consists of a number of interrelated structures. The ASGS brings all the regions for which the ABS publishes statistics within the one framework, facilitating a streamlined understanding and interpretation of the statistics in a geographical context.
The statistical geography employed in the ASGS provides a range of statistical areas to suit different statistics and accommodates the provision of a range of statistics on a common statistical area. Please refer to the Glossary for detailed definitions of statistical areas.
The RAs divide Australia into broad geographic regions that share common characteristics of remoteness for statistical purposes. Remoteness Areas (RA) divide Australia into five classes of remoteness, Major Cities of Australia, Inner Regional Australia, Outer Regional Australia, Remote Australia, and Very Remote Australia, which are characterised by a measure of relative geographic access to services. Access to services is measured using the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia Plus (ARIA+), produced by the Australian Centre for Housing Research (formerly the Hugo Centre for Population and Migration Studies) at the University of Adelaide. RAs are based on an extended version of the Accessibility and Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA+).
More information on the ABS Statistical Geography Standard can be found by visiting the ABS website: http://www.abs.gov.au/geography.
Basis of preparation
This publication is presented in a single Microsoft Excel file. It contains a time series of the key statistics and charts from June 2017, a summary tool enabling users filter the data according to geographic location, banking service and individual ADI, and detailed information at sector, institution, state and service channel type level.
The statistics publication is produced based on the 2021 edition of the ASGS ABS structures. 2021 Census of population data was used to derive the usual resident population to maintain consistency across the publication.
More information on the populating data are available at the following ABS webpage:
Regional population | Australian Bureau of Statistics (abs.gov.au)
This publication includes points of presence located within geographical Australia as defined under the 2021 edition of the ASGS ABS structures. Under this definition, geographic Australia includes:
- New South Wales;
- Victoria;
- Queensland;
- South Australia;
- Western Australia;
- Tasmania;
- Northern Territory;
- Australia Capital Territory; and
- Other Territories ((Jervis Bay Territory, Territory of Christmas Island, Territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Norfolk Island).
Aside from EFTPOS terminals, all other points of presence located outside of geographical Australia (not contained within the ASGS structures) cannot be presented consistently across the publication and have been excluded from this publication.
More information on the 2021 edition of the ASGS ABS structures are available at the following ABS webpage: Find Census data | Australian Bureau of Statistics (abs.gov.au)
Reporting framework
This publication is based on the new APRA Reporting Standard ARS 796.0 Points of Presence, while previous editions of the ADI Points of Presence publication were based on the superseded APRA Reporting Standard ARS 396.0 Points of Presence. Revisions to both the format of the publication and the underlying data collected mean the historical and new statistics are not directly comparable.
The revision to the reporting standard was the result of the consultation conducted on the
ADIs' Points of Presence statistics in 2015.
The June 2016 edition of the publication - the last one based on the superseded reporting standard and methodology - will remain available on APRA's website for this publication.
Source of statistics
From June 2017 onwards, the data in this publication are sourced from the following returns submitted to APRA under the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001 by ADIs.
• ARF 796.1 Points of Presence - Face-to-Face Service Channels;
• ARF 796.2 Points of Presence - ATMs; and
• ARF 796.3 Points of Presence - EFTPOS Terminals.
Blank copies of returns and associated instructions are available on APRA's website.
Points of presence from Australia Post (Bank@Post locations) are obtained directly from Australia Post.
Precision of data
The precision of the latitude and longitude coordinates in this publication is dependent on the data submitted. Under ARS 796.0 Points of Presence, coordinates are reported to at least four decimal places.
While a substantive level of checks is performed on the data, the precision involved in geocoding the geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) of points of presence varies across institutions. The data collected for this publication is intended to be used to indicate access to and geographical concentrations of the various types of points of presence provided by ADIs over time. Care should be taken in using the published coordinates to locate individual points of presence or to reverse geocode these coordinates to a street address.
Information to assist with locating current points of presence provided by an ADI, including street addresses, should be sourced directly from the ADI (e.g. from the ADI's website).
ADI industry segments
To assist users in analysing the ADI industry, ADIs are categorised into seven industry segments: major banks, other domestic banks, foreign subsidiary banks, branches of foreign banks, building societies, credit unions, and other ADIs.
The definition of each industry segment can be found in the glossary for this publication, and a list of all ADIs is provided on APRA’s website: Register of authorised deposit-taking institutions.