Bendigo and Adelaide Bank boss Marnie Baker wants to challenge the big four banks

THE boss of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank expects a renewed focus on consumer, business and agribusiness customers to generate growth within the bank’s South Australian portfolio.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank managing director Marnie Baker at the company's Grenfell St offices. Picture SIMON CROSS

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THE boss of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank expects a renewed focus on consumer, business and agribusiness customers to generate growth within the bank’s South Australian portfolio.

Speaking after the company’s annual meeting today, managing director Marnie Baker said the bank’s long-standing history in the South Australia rural sector positioned it well to snare market share from competitors including Rabobank and the big four.

“We’ve got a really strong connection to Adelaide and South Australia and we’re open to doing more from a rural perspective,” she told The Advertiser following the company’s AGM in Bendigo.

“The managing director of Rural Bank (Alexandra Gartmann) has that as part of her strategy, and Rural Bank itself already has a 9.7 per cent market share so it’s quite a significant player in the market.”

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, the country’s fifth-largest retail bank, has retained strong links in Adelaide since it was created through the merger of Bendigo Bank and Adelaide Bank in 2007.

It employs close to 1100 staff at its CBD offices on Grenfell St, plus an additional 300 employees across the state.

Following a shake-up of the company’s executive team in August, the bank’s consumer and business banking divisions are led out of Adelaide by former chief financial officer Richard Fennell and Bruce Speirs.

As part of its investment in digital technology, the company holds a 27 per cent stake in Adelaide startup Tic:Toc, and provides the funding for loans processed through the online application platform. Earlier this month the bank launched its digital bank Up.

Addressing her first AGM since taking the reins in July, Ms Baker outlined the importance of tapping into digital disruption in the industry.

“We are also focussed on changing the current perception that it is too hard to switch banks, that alternatives like Bendigo and Adelaide Bank don’t have the capability of the big four banks, are not innovative and are behind in technology,” she told shareholders.

“We have all the products and services, skills and capabilities that Australian consumers are looking for in a bank, and more. We see innovation as evolution and not revolution.”

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank posted a $434.5 million after tax profit last financial year, up 1.1 per cent from the previous year. Cash earnings were up 6.4 per cent at $445.1 million.

However, Ms Baker said the bank continued to be hamstrung by a regulatory environment that favoured the big four banks, and would be lobbying for reforms proposed in the Productivity Commission’s recent inquiry into competition in the sector.

“One of the fundamental causes of the current crisis in financial services in Australia is the lack of true competition in Australian banking,” she told shareholders.

“It is crucial that organisations with different objectives and standards can compete on a

level playing field and customers can choose accordingly.

“And we are here, equipped, willing to compete and forever hungry to offer Australians a better option, even with the current prudential and regulatory settings still holding one hand behind our back.”

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank shares closed 16c, or 1.6 per cent, higher yesterday at $10.31.