Wangaratta's Royal Children's Hospital Appeal coordinator, Alex Carmody, has been left frustrated by recent dealings with a local bank, where an estimated $4 million donated by locals has been deposited for the appeal over the past 57 years. Mr Carmody, 85, has been the Wangaratta and district appeal coordinator since the early 1990s, and received an Order of Australia Medal in 2017 for his community work including RCH fundraising. He said he had received correspondence from ANZ explaining that changes needed to be made to the account which had been held by Wangaratta and district RCH Appeal fundraising since 1969. While seeking guidance on how to make those changes, Mr Carmody said he was told that the account would probably need to close anyway, as after Christmas 2026 the Reid Street branch would no longer accept the large collection of coins deposited for the RCH. Mr Carmody struggled to understand the treatment from the bank with which he's had such lengthy dealings, through an account set up decades ago by a local fire brigade member who worked at the bank. "There's never been a problem until now," he said. "I feel it was just an excuse to get rid of us, because it took time to count the coins." Mr Carmody said he had since switched the account to the National Bank, where he regularly deposited the local donations into the RCH's own account. He said while this move did streamline the process for him, he had been disappointed by the interaction with ANZ. Mr Carmody said the National Bank branch, also in Reid Street, had told him it was happy to accept the coins locals donated to the appeal through collection tins across the city. "People are less likely to carry cash these days, but we do still get a lot of people dropping coins in the tins, so we need to be able to bank them," he said. An ANZ spokesperson said ANZ continued to accept cash and coin deposits across its branch network, including Wangaratta. "There has been no change to our policy," the spokesperson said. "Our Wangaratta team remains committed to providing over-the-counter services and supporting customers with their banking needs. "ANZ is unable to comment on individual customer matters."
