Commonwealth Bank pays $35,000 to Tassie schools for students’ accounts

TASMANIAN public schools were paid more than $35,000 last year to sign students up to Commonwealth Bank products, the Education Department says.

TASMANIAN public schools were paid more than $35,000 last year to sign students up to Commonwealth Bank products, the Education Department says.

An Education Department spokesman released the figures on Tuesday after media inquiries.

The bank’s Dollarmites accounts have been a popular and long-running introduction to savings for school students, but also a strong marketing program for the bank.

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“The Tasmanian Government is committed to ensuring students have the skills and confidence in both literacy and numeracy to participate in learning, life and work, and this is a key goal for DoE,” the department said in a statement.

“During the 2017-18 financial year participating Tasmanian Government schools received $35,831 as part of the Commonwealth School Banking Contributions Program.

“We do not collect data on non-government schools.

“The program is voluntary for schools and their school communities to participate in.”

The Dollarmite junior saver program had been running in Australian schools since 1931.

It ran into controversy earlier this year after it was revealed bank staff has fraudulently manipulated account balances to meet internal performance targets.

The bank apologised for its actions.

The Commonweath Bank’s Dollarmites programs paid tens of thousands of dollars to Tasmanian government schools last financial year.