Business Information

Commonwealth Bank is Australia’s leading provider of financial services including retail & business banking. Everything you need to know about Commonwealth Bank's various credit card offers and find one that matches your financial needs and goals.

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Spoken Language: English

Business: Banking Services, Financial Services

The Commonwealth Bank is Australia’s leading provider of integrated financial services including:

• Rretail banking
• Premium banking
• Business banking
• Institutional banking
• Funds management
• Superannuation
• Insurance
• Investment
• Sharebroking products and services

The Group is one of the largest listed companies on the Australian Stock Exchange and is included in the Morgan Stanley Capital Global Index.

The key financial objective of the Group is to have Total Shareholder Return in the top quartile of our Australian listed peers over each rolling five-year period. Total Shareholder Return is calculated as the growth in the value of the investment in the Group’s shares, assuming all dividends are reinvested in shares at the point dividends are paid. The strategic strengths of the Commonwealth Bank are its brand, scale and diversified business mix.

The Commonwealth Bank brand is the most recognised brand in the Australian financial services industry. Other award-winning brands within the Group include our wealth management business Colonial First State, our online broking service CommSec and Bankwest.

In terms of scale, the Group has a strong domestic presence with the largest customer base of any Australian bank and operates the largest financial services distribution network in the country with the most points of access.

Australian Banking<

The Commonwealth Bank Group provides a full range of retail banking services< including:

• Home loans
• Credit cards
• Personal loans
• Transaction accounts
• Demand and term deposits

Through its Commonwealth Bank and Bankwest brands. The Group has leading domestic market shares in home loans, personal loans, retail deposits and discount stockbroking, and is one of Australia's largest credit card issuers. The Group also offers a full range of commercial products including business loans, equipment and trade finance, and rural and agribusiness products.

The Group serves corporations, government entities and other major institutions operating in Australasia. Corporate customers have access to financial markets services, securities underwriting, trading and distribution, corporate finance, equities, payments and transaction services, investment management and custody services.

Commonwealth Bank Group Funds under management<

As a full financial services provider, the Group also offers investment products and superannuation. Customers can choose between investing directly in the range of investment funds offered by the Group, or obtain wider investment choice through the Group’s master trust product, FirstChoice, the largest retail platform in Australia. The Commonwealth Bank Group is one of the country's largest manager of Australian funds, and one of the largest retail funds managers in terms of total value of funds under management.

The asset management business manages investment portfolios for a diverse range of retail and wholesale clients. It provides a large range of active and indexed investment options. These options include Australian and international shares, listed property, fixed interest, credit, infrastructure, private equity and cash.

Commonwealth Bank Group Superannuation and insurance<

The Group provides term insurance, disability insurance, master trusts, annuities and investment products. The Group is Australia’s second largest life insurer and is one of the largest managers in retail superannuation, allocated pensions and annuities by funds under management. Life insurance operations are also conducted in New Zealand, where the Group has the leading market share, and throughout Asia and the Pacific.

Commonwealth Bank Group International<

The Commonwealth Bank Group has a growing international presence through:

• Retail banks in New Zealand (ASB) and Indonesia (Commonwealth Bank Indonesia)
• Banking investments in China (20 per cent in both Qilu Bank and Bank of Hangzhou)
• Life insurance operations in New Zealand (Sovereign), Indonesia (Commonwealth Life)and a joint venture in China (BoCommLife)
• Banking branches in London, New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Auckland and Mumbai
• Representative offices in Beijing and Hanoi

Commonwealth Bank Group Networks and alliances<

The extensive reach of the Group’s distribution network is achieved through the combination of the Group’s branch network and a nationwide agency arrangement with Australia Post.

The Group also offers convenient 24-hour access to banking services via telephone banking and Australia's most extensive EFTPOS and ATM networks. The Commonwealth Bank Group is a leader in online financial services in Australia with facilities that include NetBank, the Group’s internet banking site and CommSec, the country’s most popular online broker.

The Group also has a wide agency and independent financial advisory distribution capability with trained and licensed investment advisers located throughout the branch network and aligned advisory services.

Commonwealth Bank Group Community support<

The Commonwealth Bank is a long-standing supporter of community activities and organisations. This support is directed at a broad range of activities that bring long term benefits to Australians and reflect community activities and organisations. Areas of particular emphasis include education, medical, youth, science and technology, the arts and the environment.

In the area of education, we aim to develop financial literacy, especially for youth, as well as online learning. We look to support educational programs which provide professional and credible learning activities.

The Commonwealth Bank Foundation encourages developments in education, including the development of financial literacy skills for young Australians.

Commonwealth Bank Group Structure<

The Commonwealth Bank has five customer-facing business divisions, designed to align product development and service delivery more fully with customer segments. The businesses are:

• Retail Banking Services
  • Retail Banking Services' role is to deliver customised service, focusing on meeting the financial needs of personal and small business customers seeking convenient and affordable banking.
• Business and Private Banking
  • Business and Private Banking manages relationships with Commonwealth Bank’s small-medium enterprise customers and its regional and agribusiness customers, providing a wide range of services and solutions. It also services our personal and institutional online trading customers, and provides service, advice and opportunities to our premium personal customers through Commonwealth Private.
• Institutional Banking and Markets
  • Institutional Banking and Markets provides equity, debt and banking services, including payment systems, to the Group’s Institutional clients. Its Total Capital Solutions approach delivers industry expertise and specialist skills that meet clients’ needs and span the capital spectrum.
• Wealth Management
  • Wealth Management brings together the Commonwealth Bank's funds management manufacturing and distribution capability as well as its domestic insurance and financial advice business support divisions. These divisions include the well-known brands of Colonial First State Global Asset Management, Colonial First State and CommInsure.
• International Financial Services
  • International Financial Services is leading the Commonwealth Bank’s international growth strategy by focusing on developing offshore growth opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region. The Group is represented in 13 countries and our key markets are Indonesia, China, Vietnam and India.
  • International Financial Services is also responsible for the Group’s retail banking and life insurance operations in New Zealand (ASB/Sovereign) and Indonesia (Commonwealth Bank and Commonwealth Life), and two investments in Chinese city commercial banks (Jinan and Hangzhou).
  • In addition, the Commonwealth Bank has five support divisions. These include:
• Financial Services
  • Financial Services partners with all areas of the Commonwealth Bank Group to provide specialist advice regarding the organisation’s financial management and strategy. This advice covers finance, audit, treasury, investor relations, security, general procurement and property.
• Risk Management<
  • Risk Management is responsible for developing appropriate strategies and risk frameworks to allow the Group to take conscious exposures to credit, market, operational, compliance and insurance risks within a Board-approved appetite. They do this by identifying, assessing and reporting risks; assessing the impact of proposed changes in laws, regulations and industry codes to achieve the optimal risk and return outcomes for the Commonwealth Bank Group.
• Enterprise Services
  • Enterprise Services provides technology and banking operations services across the Commonwealth Bank Group. The technology teams provide innovative product platforms for customers as well as essential tools for our business. The operations teams leverage technology to drive efficient and timely processing which is an essential component of the customer value proposition. Core Banking Modernisation, which will modernise the Group’s existing banking legacy systems with a customer centric platform, is just one of several key strategic programs within Enterprise Services.
• Human Resources
  • Human Resources supports each business unit through recruitment, employee relations, HR administration, remuneration benefits, occupational health and safety, project work and leadership development training.
• Marketing and Communications
  • Marketing and Communications brings together the Commonwealth Bank’s marketing, sponsorship, employee communication, media and public relations, brand and customer insights teams to provide strategic support and advice to the Group’s leaders.

Commonwealth Bank Group Facts and figures<

• Strategic vision
  • To be Australia's finest financial services organisation through excelling in customer service.
• Financial information
  • Our shareholder base totals more than 790,000.
  • More than 75 per cent of our staff in Australia are shareholders.
  • Net profit after tax on statutory basis increased 5 percent to $3,052 million and on cash basis, 13 percent to $3,335 million (as at 31 December 2010).
  • Fully franked interim dividend of $1.32 per share, an increase of 10 percent on the prior year. The increase in the interim dividend takes the payout ratio to 61.7 percent which is broadly in line with the interim payout ratio for prior years.
  • The Group has $649,642 million in assets held and funds under administration (as at 31 December 2010)
  • Refer to the Profit Announcement for the most current financial statements and statistics for the Commonwealth Bank.
• Distribution network
  • The Commonwealth Bank operates the largest financial services distribution network in the country with the most points of customer access.
  • Over 1,000 branches nationally.
  • Over 3,800 Australia Post agencies.
  • Over 4,000 ATMs nationally.
  • The Commonwealth Bank supports more than 190,000 EFTPOS terminals throughout Australia.
  • The highest volume transaction websites in the southern hemisphere.
  • More than 10 call centres, which handle over 120 million calls per annum.
• Services
  • We offer personal banking services at almost 3,800 Australia Post agencies and transactional banking services for business clients at almost 500 Australia Post agencies across the country.
  • Our cardholders can use their cards at more than 25 million locations around the world, including over one million ATMs.
  • More than 3.3 million active NetBank customers, with over 43 million log ons per month.
  • Over 6,000 mortgage brokers.
• Scale
  • We have established businesses in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
  • We have Australia’s largest banking customer base.
  • We are one of Australia's leading home loan providers with over a million home loan customers.
  • Our brands include Colonial First State, CommInsure, ASB (New Zealand), Sovereign, FirstChoice, CommSec, and Bankwest.
  • We are the second largest life insurer in Australia, ranking second in the market in terms of in-force annual premiums.
  • Commonwealth Bank/Colonial First State’s retail platform, FirstChoice has the largest market share of the $504 billion retail managed funds market according to Plan for Life’s September Quarter 2010 report.
• People
  • We have 45,000 people working at Commonwealth Bank Group.
  • 63 per cent of our staff are women.
  • Chief Executive Officer is Ralph Norris.
  • Chairman is David Turner.
  • We offer a range of flexible work options to support our people including career breaks, parental leave, carer’s leave and study leave.

The Commonwealth Bank brand is the most recognised brand in the Australian financial services industry. It is a brand with a strong heritage that has evolved over the years and this is reflected in the reputable financial services organisation we are today. Other award-winning brands within the Group include Colonial First State, our wealth management business, and CommSec, our online broking service.

The Commonwealth Bank is focused on understanding our customers’ needs, then meeting and exceeding their expectations. To achieve this, we are doing things differently.

Our brand promise, Determined to be different, was launched on 26th January 2008 and encapsulates the determination we have to be a different bank, and to be different from all banks in Australia.