The year in review

For year ending 30 June 2022

Adapting to a changing environment

Our objectives

We will maintain our branch opening hours to provide continued support for our customers whilst ensuring the wellbeing and safety of our staff.

We will ensure our community partners are coping with the challenges they are facing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and provide continued support.

We will continue to review our branch network and ensure we service the changing needs of our customers.

Our objectives

We will continue to use our Community Investment Program to assist local organisations needing support. We will offer flexibility with our Community Investment Program to ensure we can respond to the immediate needs of our community partners.

We will adapt and implement new means to engage and support our community partners.

Our actions

We facilitated sessions with community leaders to understand their challenges and share best practice. These sessions were successful and future collaborative benefits were identified.

We implemented safety measures to protect our staff and customers whilst still providing personalised customer service. As part of our branch network review, we relocated our Balwyn branch to a more modern and relevant space. We structured branch staffing to meet our customer needs and the way they transact with us.

Assist our community through uncertain times

Our actions

We implemented an online application process for COVID specific applications, providing a streamlined lodgement process. We maximised the use of technology to remain in touch with our community partners demonstrating our ongoing commitment and support. We adopted a flexible approach to our Community Investment Program requests, assessing these outside normal review dates to facilitate immediate support.

We proactively encouraged our community partners to request financial support when they were facing challenges to remain financially viable.

Growing our business to meet our purpose

Our objectives

We will increase our referral network through improved engagement with business and community partners. We will identify new business growth opportunities.

We will leverage the low interest rate environment to increase lending opportunities. We will continue to focus on staff development to address the challenges of staff retention.

Our actions

We increased our professional referral network, achieving greater opportunities through this source while reconnecting with our community partners, as they resumed activities after COVID-19. We acquired Swinburne University from Bendigo Bank providing an opportunity for further growth through this channel. We developed and implemented an extensive social media marketing campaign to promote our mobile lending capabilities, focusing on the low interest rates and ease of access to our lending team. We implemented clear staff development plans, leading to several internal promotions throughout the year. Staff retention however continues to be a challenge as we face a unique employment market.