Bendigo Bank - News Archives

Bendigo Bank Managing Director Rob Hunt today launched a campaign to raise awareness of the unique nature of the bank’s Community Bank^® model.

Since launching Community Bank^® in 1998, Bendigo has helped 173 communities to open locally owned franchised branches in towns and suburbs across Australia.

Bendigo tomorrow starts a national press and television advertising campaign to raise awareness of the unique nature of its model and the community outcomes being produced.

The bank will advertise in major national newspapers advising communities considering a Community Bank^® branch that “there’s only one bank you need to know – you need to know the Bendigo”.

The campaign will extend to television in February in a commercial filmed and voiced by Melbourne’s Parkdale community telling how Community Bank^® enabled them to fund a community bus.

“Our purpose is two-fold,” Mr Hunt said.

“It is to celebrate the success of communities such as Parkdale, thereby raising awareness that Community Bank^® is about building stronger communities and not just about a banking service.

“And it is to inform communities considering community banking that there is, in fact, only one financial institution in Australia that offers the genuine Community Bank^® model, and that’s Bendigo.”

Mr Hunt said Bendigo had noted how other financial institutions had followed Bendigo's lead and were talking about “community banking”.

“But Community Bank^® is not – and never has been – a generic term to describe local community involvement in banking. It is the brand used by Bendigo to identify a unique community and business partnership model designed by Bendigo Bank and implemented through the dedication and hard work of thousands of community volunteers.

“This was acknowledged by IP Australia when it registered Community Bank^® in the name of Bendigo Bank in June 2003.

“We plan to open 100 Community Bank^® branches over the next three years and we want to ensure that communities understand that if they are talking about a Community Bank^®, then there’s only one bank they need to know – they need to know the Bendigo.”

Bendigo Bank’s 173 Community Bank^® branches service more than 335,000 customers and boast more than $7 billion in banking business.