BendigoWeekly www.bendigoweekly.com.au
ISSUE 923 FRIDAY, JULY 3, 2015
Galaxy swirls for young artist Troy Troy Firebrace has had an interesting pathway to success. Now that he has been shortlisted for the Victorian Indigenous Arts Awards, more is sure to follow. – Story Page 5
A BIG DEAL COLOURFUL: Troy Firebrace with his art. Photo: ANDREW PERRYMAN
By PETER KENNEDY
BENDIGO Bank chairman Robert Johanson has used this week’s 20th anniversary of the former building society becoming a bank to reflect on the organisation’s increasing importance to the local region. Mr Johanson said while this week’s anniversary marked the change from a building society to a
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Bendigo Bank celebrates 20 years
bank, the celebration was also about something much bigger. “Our bank has evolved considerably in the past 20 years, the most significant being the merger between Bendigo Bank and Adelaide Bank in 2007,” he said. During an extensive and broad-
reaching interview, Mr Johanson described the excitement and anticipation surrounding one of Australia’s oldest financial institutions becoming a bank 20 years ago as “a big deal”. “It was the result of a series of decisions made after the Pyramid Building Society went broke. That
really irreparably damaged, we felt, the building society brand, and it showed that the regulatory structures for building societies were hopeless,” he said. Mr Johanson said the Bendigo became a bank because it felt that was what was needed to get the right
Funding plan for Discovery Centre – Page 3
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structure for the future. Twenty years ago, the former Bendigo Building Society employed about 700 staff. Today the bank employs more than 7000. In 1995, the company earned about $10m after tax. This year it reported an after tax statutory profit of $227.3 million for the six months ending 31 December 2014. Continued Page 5
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