We opened for business in March 2001 after a campaign that began in February 1999 when three Highett traders believed our community had to have a bank.
Since then we have gone from strength to strength:
We opened our doors with over $15M in business “parked” in a neighbouring Bendigo Bank Branch and within 1 year and three months trading we paid our first dividend – 2cents unfranked!
We reached our $50M business milestone after 5 years and our $100M after 10 years and now, after a massive increase in our eleventh year, we have over $120M in business and will be recommending 10c fully franked dividends – for the third year in a row.
Our community – Highett, Moorabbin, Hampton East and North Cheltenham have received over $1.4M in community returns since we started including:
• $100,000 to BayCISS to run an education support program for 10 schools, colleges and kinders in our area
• A $600,000 hydrotherapy pool we brought into existence through underwriting the money required and facilitating a number of community groups, other community banks and Bendigo Bank branches, (who combined put together over $70,000) Councils and Federal Government to deliver the project
• A foetal heart monitoring system for Sandringham Hospital at a cost of $25,000 plus a pre/post natal rest room for mothers at the hospital
• A $50,000 community bus
• Many other projects, grants and sponsorships in our community including buying a horse for disabled riding and other worthy causes.
We service a community that has within it over 100 community groups (including religious institutions, schools, sporting clubs and service providers), two Councils – Kingston & Bayside and 6 state and federal members of parliament. That’s a lot of communication and keeps our Board of Directors busy.
This year we have instituted:
• An Outstanding Community Contribution Award of $1,500 to go to a volunteer who has made a real difference to our community
• An Applied Learning Scholarship worth $1,500 to the most outstanding VCAL student in our community to enable that person to study further.
Highett Community Bank branch lives the motto - 'Bank on your community – Community Bank'.
Branch Manager - Chris Wheeler
Business Banking Manager - Bryan Chan
Financial Advisor - Andy Taranto
- Category:
- Bank/financial services