The Commonwealth bank is the leading provider of integrated financial services such as: retail premium and business banking, institutional banking, funds management, insurance, superannuation, investment and sharebroking services.
The Commonwealth Bank was founded in 1911 and started its operation one year later.
The group strategic strengths are: brand, scale and diversified business mix.
The main subsidiaries of the Commonwealth Bank are: Colonial First State (wealth management business), CommSec (online broking service) and Bankwest.
The group provides services through a network of 1,000 branches, 3,800 Post Agencies and 4,000 ATMs nationally as well as over 10 call centers handling about 120 million calls annually. The group employs 45,000 people.
The bank had 5 business divisions: Retail Banking Services, Business and Private Banking, Institutional Banking and Markets, Wealth Management and International Financial Services.
Services addressed to retail clients are: current accounts, credit cards, personal and home loans, insurance, finance planning, superannuation and international banking services.
Businesses and corporate clients are offered: business accounts, business loans and cards, managing cash flow services, merchant services and car & equipment finance.
The group has established businesses in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Asia-pacific region.
Commonwealth bank has the largest customer base in the country. The group is the leader home loan provider (over 1 million customers) and the second largest life insurer in terms of annual premiums.
The bank has over 790,000 shareholders and at the end on 2010 the group has around $ 650 million in assets.
Commonweath Bank has won several awards, as: Australian Issuer of the Year (bond market) by Insto (2011), Service Excellence Award in the category of Large Businesses by The Customer Service Institute of Australia (2010) and Bank of the Year by the Money Magazine (2010).