The chair of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has called for greater trust between financial institutions and local communities while reaffirming the 160-year-old bank's commitment to the region.
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Speaking after an address to the Australian Institute of Company Directors on Wednesday, Robert Johanson told The Bendigo Advertiser that the bank was heavily invested in the city's growth and success.
"We do more business here than we do almost anywhere else," he said, following a talk on organizational culture to company heads at Bendigo Racecourse. "So for us, the economic health and the social health of this region is really important."
"We really want this place to thrive," Johanson, who became chair in 2006, added. "And if it does thrive, we'll do well out of it."
Johanson highlighted the bank's efforts to engage with the community at a time of widespread distrust of financial institutions, whose practices are being scrutinised by an ongoing royal commission.
"We've tried over the years to work really hard at ensuring that that connection with stakeholders, with the communities, stays strong," he said, pointing to outreach efforts such as asking customers about their expectations and concerns.
But while stressing that financial institutions should not be seeking to plunder customers, the former University of Melbourne deputy chancellor warned that the "community should not take us for granted" either.
"We should expect communities to do work with us as well," he said. "It's not just a one-way street. If people think of companies as just things to be taxed and plundered, that's about as much use as the converse is."
Acknowledging problems in the industry, Johanson said that the banking royal commission, which will report its findings next year, could have an important role in "reframing the role of banks."
"One of the big issues in all of banking is misselling, selling products to people who shouldn't have that product or don't need that product," he said, highlighting reckless lending as one widespread concern.
The veteran banker said that Bendigo and Adelaide Bank was not immune from problems, but insisted that any issues would be addressed transparently and head-on.
"Every day we would do millions of transactions," Johanson explained. "There'll be stuff-ups. They'll be stuff that people have got that they shouldn't have got.
"I know of instances where there are things that we've done that you would on reflection think we shouldn't have done that," he added. "But we address them, we've got lots of processes."
