Westpac is axing bonuses for its 2300 tellers and will instead pay them fixed wages, a move it says will allow staff to focus solely on serving customers, as banks try to regain the community's trust.

In what it says is an industry first, Westpac will from next month stop paying any bonuses to tellers, and lift their fixed pay by $500 so affected staff are not left worse off.

Chief executive of Westpac's consumer bank, George Frazis, said the change would allow staff to concentrate on customer service. Credit:Jessica Hromas

Banks have in recent years been under pressure to remove incentives that critics say led to a sales culture. The chief executive of consumer banking, George Frazis, said the change meant the critical task of tellers would be to serve customers.

“What it means for our tellers is they can actually just be concerned about providing great service to our customers and making sure that they do whatever they can to meet our customers’ needs,” Mr Frazis said.