Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) chief executive Ralph Norris said BankWest's eastern seaboard operations may be terminated following the $2.1 billion takeover.
"We are reviewing the BankWest operations on the eastern seaboard," Norris told reporters in Sydney yesterday.
"I would like... to say that we would look at redeploying people rather than [making] redundancies in the first instance.
"Even though we may decide to terminate the operations on the eastern seaboard, I hasten to add that we have not made the decision to do that."
BankWest's ambitious plan to complete a 160 branch roll-out across Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria will cease, Norris said.
BankWest, formerly owned by the beleaguered Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), had planned to recruit 100 advisers by 2010 for placement in retail branches, to boost product distribution.
Norris said Commonwealth Financial Planning would not be supporting that program, and will not be transferring its financial planners to BankWest retail branches.
He expected there will not be any branch closures in BankWest's home state of Western Australia, due to the state's customer base.
"When we look at the combined customer base in Western Australia we are going to need those branches," Norris said.
"I am guaranteeing jobs of the CBA [employees in WA]."
CBA's acquisition will more than double the number of its branches in WA, to 164, and boosted the group's deposit cushion by $37.1 billion.
The deal is still pending regulatory approval and is expected to be completed by January, Norris said.
