Bendigo Bank and Corporate Social Responsibility Essay Example

Bendigo Bank and Corporate Social Responsibility While Bendigo Bank maybe just another financial institution trying to return profits to its shareholders, there is something uniquely distinctive about Bendigo Bank that really does differentiates from the other major banks. It doesn’t take much looking around to find that Bendigo Bank is heavily involved with local and rural communities focusing extensively on corporate social responsibilities. It markets itself as the community bank but are their claims simply a marketing ploy or do they in fact practice what they preach. This following report investigated this following question through annual reports, mission statements and journals to establish that Bendigo Bank really does get involved with the community and its CSR commitments through many initiatives such as Community Bank, Community Sector Banking and Community Telco as well as other initiatives. It should also be noted that as a company, due to its merge with Adelaide Bank 2008 it is now named Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited however this report will be focusing on the Bendigo branch.

Methodology Being a public financial company listed on the ASX means that Bendigo Bank has to make many of their reports publicly available so that shareholders may access them. This meant that I was easily able to locate their annual reports/ reviews from 2000 to 2011. Also accessible are many banking policies that have to mandatorily be available for the consumers to access freely as well as some that have voluntarily put up on the bank’s website. Some examples of such policies available are the Electronic Funds Transfer code of conduct, Customer Feedback Management Policy, Code of Banking Practice etc. As mentioned these policies are all made publicly available through their website and are also available at local branches.

Attached along with this assessment is a 2011 Bendigo Bank Annual Review (Attachment A) that can be viewed in conjunction with