CEO message from Brendan Wright

Wishing you a Happy New Year

On behalf of Qudos Bank, I would like to wish you and your families a Happy New Year. Thank you to all our members for your support throughout 2023.

In this edition of MyQ, I will provide updates on the recent appointment of our Board Chair, introduce our new Chief Marketing Officer, and announce an exciting and transformational strategic initiative for our bank. This initiative allows Qudos Bank to envision the future and deliver on our ongoing commitment to customer owned banking, and further scale the bank to enhance the customer experience for our members. More on this in the feature article below.

Board Chair Announcement

I am pleased to announce that Jennifer Dalitz has been appointed to the role of Chair of the Board. This appointment was made following a Board review of its committees and leadership positions in line with the strategic needs of the organisation and the next phase of our transformation journey.

Jen served the role of Deputy Chair throughout 2023 and has been a non-executive Director of Qudos Bank since 2019. She has extensive experience in retail banking and membership associations on a strategic and executive level and has led major transformation with a strong focus on delivering sustainable change.

I would like to thank outgoing chair Rodney Watson for his contributions. Rodney will remain a Director of the Board and I look forward to his continued collaboration and insights going forward.

Jen will lead Qudos Bank through the next phase of our transformation journey with a shared vision for our customers, people, and community.

She says, “I am excited to move into 2024 with a strong leadership team and vision that supports the “Qudos Way” and look forward to leading Qudos as we strive to be a sustainable and resilient bank that helps people realise their full potential.”

Appointment of New Chief Marketing Officer

Kevin Ramsdale was recently appointed as our new Chief Marketing Officer and commenced his role in mid-January. He is an experienced leader and brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience across retail banking, the mutual sector and retail.

He previously held roles as Chief Marketing Officer at Judo Bank, Chief Customer Officer at RACV and Marketing Director at JB Hi-Fi.

Kevin will be working closely with the Executive team whilst leading the marketing team to deliver on our marketing, product, and digital strategies. I am excited to have Kevin on board and driving our strategic marketing initiatives and refining our purpose as a customer-owned bank.

Qudos Bank and Bank Australia to explore merger to create Australia’s leading purpose driven bank

I am very excited to announce that on February 1^st Qudos Bank and Bank Australia announced their intention to explore a merger between two of Australia’s leading purpose driven customer owned banks.

In initiating the potential merger, the Boards of both banks identified that there is strong alignment in the culture and values of both organisations, with a deep commitment to customer ownership that puts customers best interests at the core of operations.

A potential merger would create one of Australia’s largest customer owned banks, and with this increased scale enhance the ability to invest in products, services and digital banking technology well into the future.

Our members and employees remain paramount in the decision, and we will be providing ongoing updates as this exciting initiative progresses.

Why are we doing this?

The Boards of both banks have identified strong cultural and values alignment across both organisations. It is the ideal platform to potentially create Australia’s leading purpose driven bank. Importantly there is also a shared and enduring commitment to customer ownership that puts customers’ best interests at the heart of the operations.

Bringing Qudos Bank and Bank Australia together would create an entity supporting 300,000 customers with total assets exceeding $17 billion and served by almost 900 employees. A merged entity would benefit customers through increased scale and greater ability to invest in enhanced products, services and digital banking technology.

With aligned commitments to achieve net zero carbon emissions and to create positive impact for customers and their communities, a successful merger will also enable us to drive even greater positive impact for people and the planet.

What happens next?

The Memorandum of Understanding that we’ve signed with Bank Australia outlines the principles and approach we’ll take to explore a potential merger. Importantly, this step marks the beginning of a process of detailed due diligence to thoroughly assess the benefits for customers of the potential merger.

If both Boards decide to recommend a merger following the due diligence process, customers will have the final say through a member vote later in 2024 or early 2025. A detailed information pack will be made available to members to inform their decision making at the appropriate time.

In the meantime, you don’t need to do anything and there’ll be no changes to your accounts, products or day-to-day banking.

You can learn more about the proposed merger and the approach we’re taking on our website.

Read more

This is an exciting opportunity for the future of Qudos Bank and Bank Australia, and I look forward to keeping you informed of progress in the months ahead.