Customer Support Drives St.george Lending Up 10 Per Cent

Customer Support Drives St.George Lending up 10 per cent

St.George Bank concluded the 2008/09 financial year in a strong position with total lending up 10 per cent to $121 billion and total deposits up 13 per cent to $61 billion.

"St.George has a very proud history of helping Australians to own their own home. This year we settled on a total of $24 billion of home loans, which meant that we were able to help over 100,000 people take out or extend a home loan or refinance their mortgage," said Mr Greg Bartlett, St.George Bank Chief Executive.

"We're looking to continue this momentum in 2009/10 with plans to hire an additional 100 frontline staff, open another 20 branches, expand our ATM network and invest in more community sponsorships."

St. George 2008/09 Highlights:

*Continuing strong momentum
- Net retail customer numbers year on year up 6 per cent
- Best customer retention in four years
- Above system growth for mortgages (up 12 per cent); personal lending up 11 per cent, business lending up 4 per cent and deposits up 13 per cent
- Customers with four or more products up 13 per cent

*Increasing staff engagement - at 82 in per cent (2009) up from 75 per cent (2007)[1]
- Marking 10 years of award-winning "Star Awards" staff recognition program

*Ranked in the top ten most valuable brands in Australia[2]

*Multi-award winning bank for products and services

*Market leading customer satisfaction and advocacy

2008/09 Financial Highlights[3]

Operating income
Sept 09 - $3,285M
Sept 08 - $2,949M
% Change 11

Operating expenses
Sept 09 - $1,200M
Sept 08 - $1,153
% Change - (4)

Core earnings
Sept 09 - $2,085M
Sept 08 - $1,796M
% Change 16

Cash earnings
Sept 09 - $1,043M
Sept 08 - $1,101M
% Change - (5)

Expense to income ratio
Sept 09 - 36.5%
Sept 08 - 39.1%
% Change - 260bps

Commenting on the 2008/09 St.George Bank results, Mr Bartlett said:

"Our 16 per cent increase in core earnings[4] was supported by continuing strong deposit and lending growth. Cash earnings dipped by 5 per cent due to impairments, particularly in the commercial property sector. Corporate/business impaired assets were 2.35% of our total committed exposures. Pleasingly, the consumer lending continued to perform very well, with our consumer impairments decreasing compared to the prior year by $1 million.

"We have continued to help our customers this year by reducing exception fees, offering fee-free banking options and launching a new savings product, St. George Sense - a product that sets us apart in the market by helping customers manage their money better."

Mr Bartlett said a strong endorsement of St.George's business direction and strategy has come from both staff engagement and customer satisfaction and advocacy results during the year.

"Staff are increasingly happy working for St.George with engagement levels increasing to 82 per cent while staff turnover decreased to 8.7 per which remains well below that of our peers."

St.George reported strong customer metrics, retaining its comfortable lead over the majors on both customer satisfaction (76.6 per cent - an increase of 1.4 per cent and a 4.3 percentage point lead over the average of the majors) and customer advocacy (with Net Promoter Scores improving by 3.9 points, maintaining a healthy 6.6 point margin over the majors).

The Bank has continued to invest in the community with new sponsorships including the St.George Melbourne Marathon and the St Kilda Football Club, which will expand to a new three year partnership with the Bank becoming the Saints financial services sponsor commencing season 2010. This season St.George Bank also becomes the major sponsor of the St.George District Cricket Club in Sydney.

St.George has received significant industry recognition and awards throughout the year including the AFR Smart Investor "Bank of the Year", Money Magazine's "Home Lender of the Year" and the World's Best Customer Contact Centre. Canstar Cannex also rated St.George as having the widest range of home loans.

St.George Bank employs 5,700 staff, operates over 400 branches and provides its customers with feefree access to over 2,950 ATMs throughout Australia.

[1] The 2009 and 2007 staff surveys were conducted by different research agencies and the results provide a trend indicator rather than being directly comparable due to differing methodology.

[2] St.George was ranked the 9th most valuable brand in Australia (Interbrand March 2009)

[3] Prepared on a proforma basis as if the merger with Westpac was completed (and current divisional structures implemented) on 1 October 2007, to facilitate comparison of the latest period with prior periods.

[4 ]Core earnings is operating income less operating expenses (both on a cash basis) before impairment charges.

For more information please contact:
Simon Covill
Head of Communications
02 9236 1328 or
0417 480 693

Carmen Chivers
Media Relations Manager
02 9236 2777 or
0410 691 313

SOURCE: St.George Bank