Bendigo Bank named Victoria’s ‘Good Corporate Citizen'

Bendigo Bank today was named Victoria’s Good Corporate Citizen 2003 in the annual Victoria Day awards.

The award was presented to Chairman Richard Guy OAM by Victorian Lieutenant Governor Lady Southey in a Victoria Day ceremony at the Melbourne Town Hall.

Trustees of the Victoria Day Council said the award recognised Bendigo Bank’s commitment to the Victorian community, particularly through its successful Community Bank® program and its support for victims of the tornado which tore through Bendigo in May.

Mr Guy said the Bank was very comfortable working with community and was proud to accept the award.

“ Our commitment to improving the circumstances of communities we serve is an essential element of our business strategy,” he said.

“ Our aim is to help create more prosperous communities whose natural inclination is to support Bendigo Bank.

“ We have been able to combine the co-operative spirit so evident in our communities with our commercial expertise to create solutions which benefit everyone.“ These initiatives often require us to go the extra mile and provide the investment, time and patience to make them work, but there is already evidence our approach is bearing fruit.

“ We are growing by more than 10,000 new customers each month, and have done so for well over a year now. There is no sign of this abating.

“ This is translating into profit growth which will provide our 44,000 mainly small shareholders with improving returns on their investment.

“ Just as importantly, our communities are doing well, too. In Community Banking™, for example, we have already seen communities plough $1.9 million of their profits back into local projects to their district.

“ So good community and good business are not mutually exclusive. In fact, for us, good community is very good business. We believe successful customers and successful communities create a successful bank … and it happens in that order.”