Bankwest has announced the closure of more than two-thirds of its East Coast network in a move the Finance Sector Union described as a major shock to the bank's employees.Over a three-week period from 17 August, a total of 29 branches will close, "concentrating Bankwest's east coast footprint into 14 key branches", the bank said. The closures will see about 200 positions disappear, primarily in suburban branches in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.Bankwest said the move is the latest step in its "strategic refocus on evolving and improving its offering to retail and small business customers nationwide", announced in March 2017."Ultimately, [these branch closures] means we can provide better services to more customers in the future," said the bank's managing director Rowan Munchenberg.Citing an 88 per cent rise in app logins over the past three years, Munchenberg said the closures reflected "a consistent trend of customers choosing mobile banking over in-branch options for their transaction needs"."We will work with and support impacted colleagues in the coming weeks, doing what we can to help them identify other opportunities, be they within or outside of the Group," he said. "This change does not impact Western Australia, where our strong brand and established footprint enables us to maintain highly competitive branch and digital offerings."Impacted customers are being informed of the closures and "will receive guidance on alternative banking options available to them" by email, letters and store signage, Bankwest said in a media statement.Some of the options provided to customers seem to involve driving retail clients completely away from the CBA group's branch network, while attempting to divert Bankwest's business customers to the parent company."We are writing to affected customers to outline options, such as using Australia Post's Bank@Post services and, for business customers, taking advantage of CBA branches," Munchenberg said.The Finance Sector Union's national secretary Julia Angrisano noted that Bankwest is a subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank, running the argument that the decision is designed to maintain the CBA's profits at the expense of customers and jobs."For an entire branch network to almost disappear overnight will have lasting impacts on Bankwest employees, their customers and the communities in which they belong," she said."Instead of closing branches the Finance Sector Union is calling on the CBA and Bankwest to properly consult with its workers and communities about the future of its branch network before taking decisions to abandon branches." "We believe the CBA and Bankwest should be concentrating on repairing its culture and standing in the community instead of dumping customers and staff," Angrisano said.