Bendigo Bank moves to short-form shareholder review

Bendigo Bank today announced it would alter its annual reporting arrangements in response to changes in the law regulating company obligations.

The Bank’s 50,000 shareholders will be provided with a 16-to-20-page Shareholder Review in place of a Concise Annual Report, which will no longer be produced.

The Bank will produce the following four short shareholder reports in 2007/08:

All will be posted to shareholders (unless they elect not to receive them, or to receive them electronically) and all will be available on the Bank’s website, www.bendigobank.com.au.

The full Annual Report of around 130 pages will still be produced and posted on the Bank’s website in September. All shareholders will be advised when the full Annual Report is made available on the Bank’s website. Hard copies of the full Annual Report will only be sent to those shareholders who specifically request a copy.

Bendigo’s head of corporate affairs, Owen Davies, said the Bank believed shareholders would welcome the changes.

“We surveyed our shareholders earlier this year and the overwhelming response was for shorter, simpler annual reporting,” Mr Davies said.

“Until these law changes, we were required to mail an annual report to every shareholder, unless they advised they did not want one.

“This resulted in a lot of wastage. Even our “Concise” Annual Report ended up being 88 pages long in order to accommodate all the relevant reporting requirements. It was costly to produce and mail, and many reports were simply thrown away or skimmed through.

“We believe the new arrangements will provide shareholders with relevant, easy-to-read information while vastly reducing paper use.”

Bendigo Bank will write to shareholders this week explaining the changes and options available to them.