St.George Bank

Infobox Company
company_name = St.George Bank Limited
company_
company_type = Public (ASX|SGB)
company_slogan = "Good with people. Good with money."
foundation = As a building society (1937)
As a public company (1992)
location = flagicon|AUS Sydney, Australia
key_people =

Paul Fegan (CEO)

John Curtis (Chairman)

Rob Chapman (BankSA Director)
area_served = flagicon|AUS Australia
num_employees = 8,800 full time equivalentFact|date=February 2008
products =
homepage = [http://www.stgeorge.com.au/ www.stgeorge.com.au] [http://www.stgeorge.com.au/careers careers@stgeorge] |

St.George Bank is the fifth largest bank in Australia (by market capitalisation) [ [http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i4ZinVWrT5QJZuuy74FUSn8OQMSAD90K2Q180] Dead link|date=August 2008] . It trades mostly in New South Wales and in South Australia through its subsidiary, BankSA. However, St George does maintain branches and ATMs in other states and has offshore operations in Bangalore, India.

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.

Advance Bank's origins also began in 1937 when the NSW Permanent Building and Investment Societies were launched.

Following the war, returning servicemen with new wives and families, 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 passbooks was introduced. This was a revolutionary safeguard for both customers and St.George allowing customers to conduct their banking at any branch.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 14th November 2007 Paul Fegan was announced as the new CEO of the Bank to replace Gail Kelly who departed on 17 August 2007 to become CEO of Westpac. There is currently a proposal to merge Westpac and St.George.

Market positioning

St.George typically promotes itself as more friendly and customer-service oriented than the "big four" banks operating nationally in Australia. Relative to these other Australian banks, St.George has typically had more success in retail and home lending, with somewhat lower market share in commercial banking.

On 1st November 2006, St.George Bank posted a net profit of AUD$1bn for 2005/06, which was a 17.9% increase on the previous year. This is a record profit for the bank and was slightly above market expectations despite a weak economy in the banks main market of NSW. [http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/st-george-achieves-nsw-growth/2006/11/01/1162278178477.html] The bank now has 7.5% market share in the state, although directors are aiming for 10% in the 2006/2007 financial year.

BankSA

The Bank of South Australia, known commercially as BankSA, was originally the State Bank of South Australia. It was sold to and merged with Advance Bank due to a collapse and bailout by the Government in 1992. BankSA 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.

Dragondirect

St.George also has a smaller business known as 'dragondirect'. dragondirect offers 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. 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.

Offshoring

Like other major Australian banks, St George has begun to shift back office work offshore to India. Recently cards and loan services jobs were transferred to IBM in Bangalore [ [http://www.fsunion.org.au/news/public/1179365437_28309.html St. George sends more Aussie jobs offshore - Finance Sector Union ] ] , 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 banks offshoring relationship with Indian firms Tata and HCL.

References

External links

* [http://www.stgeorge.com.au/ Official St.George Bank website]
* [http://www.banksa.com.au/ Official BankSA website]
* [http://www.dragondirect.com.au/ Official dragondirect website]
* [http://www.directshares.com.au/ Official directshares website]