news, local-news, NAB, banking, Smiffy's Guns & Ammo

A BOONAH business owner is furious after being notified that the National Australia Bank no longer wants to handle her account. Smiffy's Guns & Ammo, which says it has been trading in Boonah for several years without incident, received a letter from the bank dated January 29 informing them that the bank had chosen to cease providing them with banking services as a result of reviews into "the risks associated with providing banking services to customers involved in certain industries". NAB was contacted but would not go into any detail about what the risks might be. "We don't discuss the details of individual customers' banking," a NAB spokesperson said. "When making decisions about the banking services we provide, NAB considers a number of factors including legislative requirements, our risk appetite and the materiality of environmental, social and governance issues." Owner Anita Smith said she was "gobsmacked" by the decision, which has forced her to find an inconvenient workaround to make certain deposits into the business account and created more headaches she does not need as a local business owner. Ms Smith said she only opened the letter last month. "I saw it when I was going through my monthly statements," she said. "They had given me 45 days until my account would be closed." Ms Smith said she was so shocked by the move, she posted a comment on Facebook which gained traction when it was shared to the Aussie Reviews page. "It did get a reaction and last time I checked it had been shared 359 times," she said. Smiffy's Guns & Ammo chose NAB about 18 months ago as they were one of the few banks with a physical branch in Boonah, and Ms Smith said they had never had any issues with the bank or its staff before. "We can't use a local bank because of what business we are, yet we can legally operate in the town just as they can. It's ridiculous," she said. She said she shouldn't have to resort to workarounds to make business deposits and was not at all happy with her highly regulated and secure business being deemed a banking risk when that clearly wasn't true. "I am making a formal complaint to NAB about this. It's totally unacceptable," she said. Shooters Union Australia president Graham Park slammed NAB's decision, calling it abhorrent virtue-signalling which directly harmed rural communities, made it harder for farmers to protect their crops, and penalised people taking part in a popular, safe, and highly regulated sport. "There are literally millions of law-abiding firearms users in Australia, all of whom have undergone extensive background checks to get their licences," he said. "Gun dealers are subject to even further checks, security requirements, and safety standards -there is no risk whatsoever in providing gun shops with merchant banking facilities."

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