A rich banking history

It was a time of new beginnings – but also great challenges.

" If you think back to where it all began in regional Queensland during a severe drought – despite name changes and advancements in technology, our purpose in serving our customers has not changed much at all.”

Isolated from the rest of the world and heavily reliant on agriculture to survive, our continent was bone dry and experiencing one of the worst droughts in years.

It was at this time, 122 years ago that Queensland Agricultural Bank opened its first branch in the southwest of the state, providing loans to farmers and rural communities.

This is where our story begins and where Suncorp’s purpose emerged – to be there for our customers when they need us most.

Through the next four decades the challenges continued – two World Wars either side of the Great Depression, when the economy collapsed and a third of the population was unemployed.

Fortunately, those tough economic tough times didn’t last and Australia was buoyed by an influx of post-war immigrants from Europe seeking a fresh start and new opportunities.

For many, the Great Australian Dream was born – starting a family, owning a home or running a business.

Around this time in 1959 the Metropolitan Permanent Building Society was founded – growing to become one of Queensland’s major building societies, officially becoming an ASX listed bank in 1988.

Fast forward to the 1990s and what is today known as “Suncorp Bank” emerged through a combination of Metway Bank and Government-owned QIDC (originally Queensland Agricultural Bank, where our story began in 1902).

That’s how we arrived where we are today. Suncorp Bank has branches across the country and we still provide great service and advice to about 1.2 million customers.

New chapter

If you think back to where it all began in regional Queensland during a severe drought – despite name changes and advancements in technology, our purpose in serving our customers has not changed much at all.

And now we are embarking on the latest chapter of our story, as part of the ANZ Group. On 18 July, 2022 Suncorp Group announced the sale of the banking arm to ANZ for $4.9 billion.

From the point of view of Suncorp Bank, we remain committed to our legacy built on strong relationships and being there for our customers.

Having the backing of ANZ alongside a focus on continued growth in our home state and across Australia is a great thing for our customers and our team, providing new opportunities and access to a broader range of products and services.

We believe a bank owning a bank makes sense. And the fact it is ANZ makes even more sense due to the close alignment of purpose and culture that has become apparent over the two years since the transaction was first announced.

Suncorp Bank’s ambition is to ‘create a brighter future’ – which aligns with ANZ’s purpose of ‘shaping a world where people and communities thrive’.

Our people are energised and excited and we’ll continue to focus on three things to retain Suncorp Bank’s momentum.

Firstly, we’ll continue to focus on providing great service to our customers and broking partners – this is our passion and will remain so.

We’ll also ensure our culture of care remains stronger than ever.

Getting the basics right

And finally, we’re ambitious for the future of our business. We will focus on growing our portfolio as part of ANZ and competing in the broader market.

Banking is about doing the basics well and we’ve been able to maintain focus on our customers while also navigating the requirements of this complex transaction.

Now with completion done, we can refocus even more of our time and energy on our customers. We’ll have new systems and processes to put in place, so we’ll need to be on the ball to maintain excellent service and ensure changes don’t disrupt our customers.

Our people are up to it. They have remained optimistic and hopeful throughout the uncertainties of the deal process and feel positive about joining ANZ and the broader opportunities that will bring.

From 1 August, we are a part of ANZ and the opportunities that come with being part of a larger bank – and an international bank – is something the team are excited about.

The combination of these two banks will allow all of us to be better together.

Bruce Rush is CEO of Suncorp Bank