Type Public (ASX: SGB)
Founded As a building society
(1937)
As a public company (1992)
Headquarters Kogarah, Sydney,
Australia
Key people Gail Kelly (CEO)
John Thame (Chairman)
Rob Chapman (BankSA Director)
Products Banking
Employees 8,500 full time equivalent
Slogan Good with people. Good
with money.
Website www.stgeorge.com.au
www.banksa.com.au
St.
George Bank is the fifth largest
bank in Australia, after the National
Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank
of Australia, ANZ and Westpac
Banking Corporation. It trades
mostly in New South Wales and
in South Australia through its
subsidiary, BankSA. However, St
George does maintain branches
and ATM's in other states.
History
St. George Bank was founded in
1937 as a building society called
St. George's Cooperative Building
Society in New South Wales and
eventually grew to be the largest
building society in Australia
and it became a bank in July 1992.
It then merged with Advance Bank
in 1997. The dragon logo was based
on St. George Dragons.
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.
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.
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.
