St. George Bank
Encyclopedia
St.George Bank is a subsidiary of Westpac Banking Corporation trading primarily in New South Wales
but with growing representation across a number of industry and business segments in Queensland
and Western Australia
. St.George also operates in South Australia
and the Northern Territory
under its subsidiary BankSA and more recently as the Bank of Melbourne in Victoria
. The bank maintains a large number of retail branches and ATMs across Australia and has some backoffice operations offshore in Bangalore
, India.
As a result of the merger of the bank with Westpac Banking Corporation in 2008 (see below), St.George customers now have access to Westpac branded and operated branches and ATM's, previously offered through a partnership with the National Australia Bank
.
The St.George Co-operative Building Society Ltd. was formed at a public meeting on Thursday 6 May 1937 in the southern Sydney suburb of Hurstville. At this meeting, the first Chairman of the Board, George Cross, was appointed.
One month later in June, the Cronulla & District Co-operative Building Society was formed. The first house constructed by one of their members was completed in Caringbah in August 1937.
The predecessors of Advance Bank also began in 1937 when the NSW Permanent Building and Investment Societies were launched.
Following the war, returning servicemen, with new wives and families and with housing as their top priority, prompted a post-war housing boom. During this time, the St.George and Cronulla societies expanded rapidly, with 38 societies established by 1955.
At the AGM on 4 July 1955, the Chairman of the St.George and Cronulla Societies, Mr Carl Weekes, announced that the Society would become a Permanent Building Society, with the objective of providing finance to allow members to purchase owner-occupied houses. The advantages of becoming a permanent society member were that loans could be larger and terms shorter.
In 1961 the first Sydney branch opened in Miranda, followed by the first Sydney city branch in August 1963. The expansion of the branch network continued through the 1960s, and played a major role in providing home loans, secure investment opportunities and financial counselling throughout NSW. In addition, the Society operated a total of 41 agencies, representing St.George from Murwillumbah to Nowra and Double Bay to Griffith.
In 1970 the idea of using a knight and a dragon as the St.George icon was introduced for several reasons including:
- The Society's Head Office location in Sydney's St.George district,
- The nickname of the local football team, the Dragons, and
- St.George was the legendary knight who slayed the dragon.
"Happy Dragon" made his first appearance on the Society's float in a procession commemorating the bicentenary of Captain Cook's landing in Australia.
In 1972 St.George was the first Building Society to 'go on-line' with the installation of an IBM mainframe computer connected to 30 terminals.
Shortly after the Society went on-line, the black light signature system for passbook
s was introduced. The headquarters of the building society was originally located in Ormonde Parade, Hurstville
. In the 1990s, the new headquarters were opened in Montgomery Street, Kogarah
.
On 1 November 2006, St.George Bank posted a net profit of A$
1bn for 2005/06, which was a 17.9% increase on the previous year, and a record profit for the bank.
Up until it's merger with Westpac Banking Corporation in 2008, St.George Bank Limited (as it was then known) was the fifth largest Bank operating in the Australian market.
and the Savings Bank of South Australia, both of which were guaranteed by the State Government. After excessive insufficiently secured lending through the 1980s, the bank collapsed, and because of the guarantee, was bailled-out by the State Government. The bank was split into the "bad bank" with the non-performing debts, and the "good bank". The "good bank" was sold to, and merged with, Advance Bank in 1992, and subsequently was purchased by St.George.
Both Advance Bank and St.George continued to run BankSA as a separate entity - it has 55 branches in metropolitan Adelaide
, 66 in rural South Australia (totalling 121 overall in the state, more than any other bank in South Australia), four in the Northern Territory
and one in Queensland
.
, who had departed on 17 August 2007 to become CEO of Westpac Banking Corporation. On 9 May 2008, Westpac and St.George released communications outlining an intention to merge, which was approved by St.George shareholders on 13 November 2008, and upheld by the Australian Federal Court on 17 November 2008. Immediately following the court decision, Paul Fegan announced his resignation as CEO and Managing Director. St.George, and BankSA, became a subsidiary of Westpac on 1 December 2008.
Upon completion of the merger with Westpac, Greg Bartlett (former Group Executive in charge of St.George Institutional and Business Bank) was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, reporting to the Chief Executive Officer of Westpac, Gail Kelly.
In late 2010, Greg Barlett announced that he would step down at Chief Executive Officer in December after a long and successful tenure with the company. Rob Chapman (Managing Director of BankSA) would be appointed in the role.
Since coming to office, Rob Chapman has led St.George Bank in conjunction with and support from its parent Westpac Banking Corporation, on a multibranded strategy which has recently seen St.George take Group business units such as RAMS
and relaunch the Bank of Melbourne
underneath its banner. The bank is now commonly referred to as the St.George Banking Group.
is a subsidiary of Westpac Banking Corporation, and was relaunched in August 2011. Previously, Westpac Banking Corporation had purchased the old Bank of Melbourne business in 1997 (a separate and independently operating building society located in Melbourne) and after some preliminary synergies were harnessed and minor rebranding undertaken (namely inserting the Westpac logo in the Bank's branding), eventually closed it's doors in 2002 and merged the remaining operations under the Westpac banner. It is reported that the brand is now being relaunched due to the limited success of the St.George Bank brand in Victoria and as such, the new Bank of Melbourne will replace the Group's St.George Bank brand completely throughout Victoria, as part of a major local branding strategy by Westpac. The bank and will operate independently of the parent company and of St. George Bank and is distinct from the old Bank of Melbourne business.
Despite its roots as a building society specialising in home and consumer lending, today the Bank provides funding to a variety of specialist industries and market segments including commercial property construction and development, invoice discounting, interest rate hedging, foreign exchange, trade finance and automotive finance (formerly the Barclay Bank Business). The Automotive Finance division also operates under St.George Finance Limited and St.George Motor Finance Limited (a subsidiary of St.George Bank) and has been rebranded in Victoria under the relaunched Bank of Melbourne.
In particular, St.George Bank has a long history and strong connection to the St George
region of Sydney
and this includes providing sponsorship for the St. George Illawarra Dragons Rugby League
team. The Bank also sponsored the AFL
club St Kilda, however relinquished this in 2010 due to continuing negative publicity issues surrounding some club players.
In Queensland, St.George Bank is major sponsor of the state's rugby union team, the Queenslands Reds. Queensland Rail relinquished the major sponsorship role at the end of 2010 paving the way for St.George, then a minor sponsor, to take it on. The Queensland Reds went on to win the Tri-nations rugby competition in 2011 which provided St.George significant exposure in the growth state. Since then St.George has announced a three year major sponsorship of the club, taking their agreement out to the end of 2014.
work offshore to India. In 2007, cards and loan services jobs were transferred to IBM in Bangalore, and most recently 22 Kogarah jobs were lost to India from Discharges,
Securitisation, Imaging and Loans Administration; bringing the total to about 122. This is in addition to the approximately 70 information technology jobs that have been moved offshore as part of the bank's offshore relationships with Indian firms Tata Consultancy Services
and Hindustan Computers Limited.
In more recent times, St George bank has begun to reverse the offshore move process, bringing Card operations jobs back into Australian hands.
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
but with growing representation across a number of industry and business segments in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
and Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
. St.George also operates in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
and the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
under its subsidiary BankSA and more recently as the Bank of Melbourne in Victoria
Victoria
- Given name :* Victoria , word origin and list of people* Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Empress of India * Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden * Victoria of Baden , the queen-consort of Sweden as wife of King Gustaf V...
. The bank maintains a large number of retail branches and ATMs across Australia and has some backoffice operations offshore in Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, India.
As a result of the merger of the bank with Westpac Banking Corporation in 2008 (see below), St.George customers now have access to Westpac branded and operated branches and ATM's, previously offered through a partnership with the National Australia Bank
National Australia Bank
National Australia Bank is one of the four largest financial institutions in Australia in terms of market capitalisation and customers. NAB is ranked 17th largest bank in the world measured by market capitalisation...
.
History
In 1848 in rural South Australia the two banks that were later to merge to form BankSA - the State Bank of South Australia and the Savings Bank of South Australia - opened for business.The St.George Co-operative Building Society Ltd. was formed at a public meeting on Thursday 6 May 1937 in the southern Sydney suburb of Hurstville. At this meeting, the first Chairman of the Board, George Cross, was appointed.
One month later in June, the Cronulla & District Co-operative Building Society was formed. The first house constructed by one of their members was completed in Caringbah in August 1937.
The predecessors of Advance Bank also began in 1937 when the NSW Permanent Building and Investment Societies were launched.
Following the war, returning servicemen, with new wives and families and with housing as their top priority, prompted a post-war housing boom. During this time, the St.George and Cronulla societies expanded rapidly, with 38 societies established by 1955.
At the AGM on 4 July 1955, the Chairman of the St.George and Cronulla Societies, Mr Carl Weekes, announced that the Society would become a Permanent Building Society, with the objective of providing finance to allow members to purchase owner-occupied houses. The advantages of becoming a permanent society member were that loans could be larger and terms shorter.
In 1961 the first Sydney branch opened in Miranda, followed by the first Sydney city branch in August 1963. The expansion of the branch network continued through the 1960s, and played a major role in providing home loans, secure investment opportunities and financial counselling throughout NSW. In addition, the Society operated a total of 41 agencies, representing St.George from Murwillumbah to Nowra and Double Bay to Griffith.
In 1970 the idea of using a knight and a dragon as the St.George icon was introduced for several reasons including:
- The Society's Head Office location in Sydney's St.George district,
- The nickname of the local football team, the Dragons, and
- St.George was the legendary knight who slayed the dragon.
"Happy Dragon" made his first appearance on the Society's float in a procession commemorating the bicentenary of Captain Cook's landing in Australia.
In 1972 St.George was the first Building Society to 'go on-line' with the installation of an IBM mainframe computer connected to 30 terminals.
Shortly after the Society went on-line, the black light signature system for passbook
Passbook
A passbook or bankbook is a paper book used to record bank transactions on a deposit account. Depending on the country or the financial institution, it can be of the dimensions of a chequebook or a passport....
s was introduced. The headquarters of the building society was originally located in Ormonde Parade, Hurstville
Hurstville, New South Wales
Hurstville is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Hurstville is located 16 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the St George area. Hurstville is the administrative centre of the local government area of the City of...
. In the 1990s, the new headquarters were opened in Montgomery Street, Kogarah
Kogarah, New South Wales
Kogarah is a suburb of southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Kogarah is located 14 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is considered to be the centre of the St George area...
.
On 1 November 2006, St.George Bank posted a net profit of A$
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
1bn for 2005/06, which was a 17.9% increase on the previous year, and a record profit for the bank.
Up until it's merger with Westpac Banking Corporation in 2008, St.George Bank Limited (as it was then known) was the fifth largest Bank operating in the Australian market.
Acquisition of BankSA (1992)
The Bank of South Australia, known commercially as BankSA, was an amalgamation of the State Bank of South AustraliaState Bank of South Australia
The State Bank of South Australia was a bank owned by the Government of South Australia. Its collapse in 1991 was a major political event in South Australia...
and the Savings Bank of South Australia, both of which were guaranteed by the State Government. After excessive insufficiently secured lending through the 1980s, the bank collapsed, and because of the guarantee, was bailled-out by the State Government. The bank was split into the "bad bank" with the non-performing debts, and the "good bank". The "good bank" was sold to, and merged with, Advance Bank in 1992, and subsequently was purchased by St.George.
Both Advance Bank and St.George continued to run BankSA as a separate entity - it has 55 branches in metropolitan Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, 66 in rural South Australia (totalling 121 overall in the state, more than any other bank in South Australia), four in the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
and one in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
.
Merger with Westpac Banking Corporation (2008)
On 14 November 2007 Paul Fegan was announced as the new CEO of the St.George Bank to replace Gail KellyGail Kelly
Gail Kelly is an Australian business person of South African descent. She is the current chief executive officer of Westpac, one of Australia's big four banks. In 2002, she became the first female CEO of a major Australian bank or top 15 company and, as of 2005, was the highest paid woman in an...
, who had departed on 17 August 2007 to become CEO of Westpac Banking Corporation. On 9 May 2008, Westpac and St.George released communications outlining an intention to merge, which was approved by St.George shareholders on 13 November 2008, and upheld by the Australian Federal Court on 17 November 2008. Immediately following the court decision, Paul Fegan announced his resignation as CEO and Managing Director. St.George, and BankSA, became a subsidiary of Westpac on 1 December 2008.
Upon completion of the merger with Westpac, Greg Bartlett (former Group Executive in charge of St.George Institutional and Business Bank) was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, reporting to the Chief Executive Officer of Westpac, Gail Kelly.
In late 2010, Greg Barlett announced that he would step down at Chief Executive Officer in December after a long and successful tenure with the company. Rob Chapman (Managing Director of BankSA) would be appointed in the role.
Since coming to office, Rob Chapman has led St.George Bank in conjunction with and support from its parent Westpac Banking Corporation, on a multibranded strategy which has recently seen St.George take Group business units such as RAMS
Rams
Rams, most commonly, refers to the plural of the word ram. In zoology, a ram is an uncastrated adult male sheep.Other uses of Rams include:-Acronyms:* Roseville Area Middle School, a Minnesota Middle School...
and relaunch the Bank of Melbourne
Bank of Melbourne
Bank of Melbourne can refer to:* Bank of Melbourne , the original bank, taken over by Westpac in 1997* Bank of Melbourne , the subsidiary of Westpac launched in 2011...
underneath its banner. The bank is now commonly referred to as the St.George Banking Group.
Relaunch of Bank of Melbourne (2011)
The Bank of MelbourneBank of Melbourne (2011)
The Bank of Melbourne is a financial institution operated in Victoria, Australia. A subsidiary of the major Australian bank Westpac, it commenced operations on 25 July 2011....
is a subsidiary of Westpac Banking Corporation, and was relaunched in August 2011. Previously, Westpac Banking Corporation had purchased the old Bank of Melbourne business in 1997 (a separate and independently operating building society located in Melbourne) and after some preliminary synergies were harnessed and minor rebranding undertaken (namely inserting the Westpac logo in the Bank's branding), eventually closed it's doors in 2002 and merged the remaining operations under the Westpac banner. It is reported that the brand is now being relaunched due to the limited success of the St.George Bank brand in Victoria and as such, the new Bank of Melbourne will replace the Group's St.George Bank brand completely throughout Victoria, as part of a major local branding strategy by Westpac. The bank and will operate independently of the parent company and of St. George Bank and is distinct from the old Bank of Melbourne business.
Market positioning
St.George typically promotes itself as more friendly and customer-service oriented than the "big four" banks operating nationally in Australia, although it is now a part of the Westpac Group. The Bank was previously recognised as a customer service leader in third party surveys, but the 2010 CHOICE consumer survey shows customer satisfaction is on par with the other "big four", lagging behind small credit providers.. More recent surverys show the bank is beginning to regain some ground in the customer service stakes with growth in Net Promoter Scores for the brand.Despite its roots as a building society specialising in home and consumer lending, today the Bank provides funding to a variety of specialist industries and market segments including commercial property construction and development, invoice discounting, interest rate hedging, foreign exchange, trade finance and automotive finance (formerly the Barclay Bank Business). The Automotive Finance division also operates under St.George Finance Limited and St.George Motor Finance Limited (a subsidiary of St.George Bank) and has been rebranded in Victoria under the relaunched Bank of Melbourne.
Dragondirect
St.George also had a smaller business known as 'dragondirect'. dragondirect offered high interest online savings accounts, superannuation, and discount sharetrading (through directshares). Directshares operates through online stockbroker E-Trade.Community
St.George plays an important role in the community through the support of various charities, the arts, sporting clubs, business programs and disaster relief initiatives. Notable community initiatives include sponsorship of the Brisbane International Film Festival in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and various fundraising appeals and support of children's charities through the St.George Foundation.In particular, St.George Bank has a long history and strong connection to the St George
St George, New South Wales
St George Area is an unofficial name applied to a group of southern suburbs in Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The area includes all the suburbs in the local government areas of the City of Hurstville, the City of Rockdale and the Municipality of Kogarah...
region of Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and this includes providing sponsorship for the St. George Illawarra Dragons Rugby League
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
team. The Bank also sponsored the AFL
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
club St Kilda, however relinquished this in 2010 due to continuing negative publicity issues surrounding some club players.
In Queensland, St.George Bank is major sponsor of the state's rugby union team, the Queenslands Reds. Queensland Rail relinquished the major sponsorship role at the end of 2010 paving the way for St.George, then a minor sponsor, to take it on. The Queensland Reds went on to win the Tri-nations rugby competition in 2011 which provided St.George significant exposure in the growth state. Since then St.George has announced a three year major sponsorship of the club, taking their agreement out to the end of 2014.
Offshore
Like other major Australian banks, St George has begun to shift back officeBack office
A back office is a part of most corporations where tasks dedicated to running the company itself takes place. The term "Back office" comes from the building layout of early companies where the front office would contain the sales and other customer-facing staff and the back office would be those...
work offshore to India. In 2007, cards and loan services jobs were transferred to IBM in Bangalore, and most recently 22 Kogarah jobs were lost to India from Discharges,
Securitisation, Imaging and Loans Administration; bringing the total to about 122. This is in addition to the approximately 70 information technology jobs that have been moved offshore as part of the bank's offshore relationships with Indian firms Tata Consultancy Services
Tata Consultancy Services
Tata Consultancy Services Limited is a global IT services, business solutions and outsourcing company headquartered in Mumbai, India. It is the largest provider of information technology in Asia and second largest provider of business process outsourcing services in India...
and Hindustan Computers Limited.
In more recent times, St George bank has begun to reverse the offshore move process, bringing Card operations jobs back into Australian hands.