Wins for Aussie, Greater Building Society and CBA at annual banking awards
Aussie Home Loans and the Commonwealth Bank have picked up multiple awards at the 22ndAustralia Banking and Finance Magazine Awards held recently in Sydney.
John Symond’s Aussie was named mortgage broker of the year for the fifth consecutive year and also won in the “best advertising, marketing and promotional campaign” and “best career development program”.
In a year in which it acquired prominent Melbourne mortgage aggregator National Mortgage Brokers (nMB) and grew its mortgage book to $43 billion, Symond said winning the mortgage broker of the year award was particularly valued.
The Commonwealth Bank picked up five awards including three for its personnel, with Ralph Norris, who stepped down as chief executive at the end of November (replaced by Ian Narev), named financial services executive of the year.
However, the CBA lost out to ANZ for major bank of the year, while Suncorp was named best of the second-tier banks. Online bank ING Direct picked up the technology kudos with an award for Andrew Henderson, its chief information officer.
Westpac and NAB went home empty-handed on the night.
Newcastle-based lender the Greater Building Society was name building society of the year for the second year running, fending off competition from Illawarra-based IMB as well as Queensland-based Wide Bay Australia.
The building society has almost 250,000 customers across NSW and south-east Queensland and has assets worth almost $5 billion.
Greater chief executive officer Don Magin paid tribute to his staff for helping make the building society a “real competitor to the major banks” and one that is not “beholden to shareholders”.
Gateway Credit Union was named best credit union.
The full list of AB& F winners are:
INNOVATIVE MORTGAGE PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
QBE – HomeKeeper
INNOVATIVE RETAIL BANKING PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Commonwealth Bank - CommBank Kaching
INNOVATIVE CARD AND PAYMENT PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Suncorp Bank - Visa Prepaid Card
BANKING WEBSITE & ONLINE OFFERING OF THE YEAR
HSBC - HSBCnet Mobile
ADVERTISING, MARKETING & PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR
Aussie
BEST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Commonwealth Bank - Commonwealth Bank Facebook Places with Deals
BEST CAREER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
Aussie
MORTGAGE BROKER OF THE YEAR
Aussie
BUILDING SOCIETY OF THE YEAR
Greater Building Society
CREDIT UNION OF THE YEAR
Gateway Credit Union
LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR
King & Wood Mallesons
AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL INSTITUTION OF THE YEAR – Non-Big Four
Suncorp Bank
AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL INSTITUTION OF THE YEAR – Major Banks
ANZ
CHIEF INFORMATION officer OF THE YEAR
Andrew Henderson, Chief Information officer, ING Direct
CHIEF RISK officer OF THE YEAR
Alden Toevs, Commonwealth Bank
CHIEF FINANCIAL officer OF THE YEAR
Peter Marriott, ANZ
BANKING AMBASSADOR AWARD
Bryan Fitzgerald, Commonwealth Bank
FINANCIAL SERVICES EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR
Ralph Norris, Commonwealth Bank
