BENDIGO has been the first stop on a long road as banking chiefs work to regain the trust of Australians.
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The city hosted chief executive officers from all major Australian banking organisations on Friday, the first regional city in Australia to do so.
Business leaders and community members met with the bankers following a meeting of the Australian Banking Association's CEO council.
Australian Banking Association chief executive Anna Bligh said banks had a long, hard road ahead of them to gain the trust of Australians after the royal commission into misconduct in the financial services industry.
"It's important for banks at this point in their history, as they work hard to re-earn the trust of every Australian, that they're out in every part of Australia," Ms Bligh said.
"Bringing all the CEOs out into regional Australia is a first for the association and I hope it's the beginning of many such regional meetings."
Australian Banking Association council chair Shayne Elliott said bankers came to Bendigo as the epitome of regional Australia, with a thriving community and diverse industry.
Mr Elliott said physically spending time in the community was a chance for leaders to listen to people's needs.
He said banks had to re-earn trust over a long period of time, by doing what they said they were going to do every single day.
"It's really a sense of us as an industry, we've got a code of banking practice that we've all signed up to," Mr Elliott said.
"It's about us giving evidence to our customers and the community that we live by that every single day. So it's going to be a hard run but we're all committed to do that."
City of Greater Bendigo Mayor Margaret O'Rourke said the city was home to Australia's fifth largest bank, and played on the national stage of the financial sector daily.
Ms Bligh said it was important that bank CEO's kept their finger on the pulse, listening to locals, to understand issues that matter.
She said she had heard tough stories about drought and hardship visiting regional Australia this year.
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