Victoria braces for interstate assault

Australiaís second-tier banks and financial institutions are pushing aggressively into the Victorian market, fuelling activity in the jobs sector.

Interstate banks such as Perthís BankWest, Sydneyís St George Bank and Bank of Queensland are steadily building up their staff networks, opening retail branches and business centres in strategic locations around Melbourne.

As well as taking on the major banks, including the Melbourne-headquartered National Australia Bank and ANZ, the interstate clan are also eyeing the profitable business bases developed by players such as Bendigo Bank and financial heavyweight GE Money.

Bank of Queensland managing director David Liddy tells eFinancialCareers that the bank is expanding its retail network through owner-manager franchises.

ìVictoria is a key market for financial services,î he says. ìWe have 16 Victorian branches and another 10 in the short-term pipeline, about 400 branded ATM machines, and strong operations in business banking and equipment finance. Weíve done all of this over the last 18 months and will continue to grow our business in the Victorian market,î Liddy says.

Peter Lock, St George Bankís general manager Victoria, says his bank has a good core competency across the full range of trading bank businesses.

ìWeíve gone about things fairly aggressively over the last couple of years,î Lock says. ìWeíve opened 10 brand-new, full-service sites, repositioned a couple of others as well, increased our ATM coverage, and really increased our footprint in Victoria. We are hiring in a range of areas.î

Paul Clark, head of BankWestís business banking division, says Melbourne is a very important banking market.

ìWeíve been in Victoria for 10 years and weíre going to stay here, he reports. Weíre going to open more and more centres over the next 12 months.î