Bank Australia

Bank Australia is a mutually owned, unlisted public company – 100% owned by its customers, the first in Australia, with total assets of over $5 billion. Its goal is to create mutual prosperity for its customers through its values-based approach to banking, and in the form of positive social, economic, environmental and cultural outcomes. It uses the tools of banking to create positive social change, and to act on social issues that its customers and staff care about.

In 2011 Bank Australia was the first customer-owned bank to implement a Reconciliation Plan and have developed a Disability Action Plan and a Financial Inclusion Action Plan.

The investment

140,000 customers invest in the bank and each year the bank commits 4% of after-tax profits to the Bank Australia Impact fund which invests in a range of social and environmental issues informed by its customers. This amounted to nearly $850,000 in 2017.

The Impact

Bank Australia provides value for money and responsible financial services to its customers, including to underserved communities – many of whom had been excluded from accessing banking services through the mainstream banks. The Bank invests in social and environmental initiatives important to its customers through the Bank Australia Impact Fund.  They became carbon neutral in 2011 and do not loan to industries that do harm such as coal, nuclear weapons, gambling, tobacco or live animal export.

bankaust.com.au