R&I Bank
 |
|
| Division of Commonwealth Bank of Australia | |
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | 1895 |
|
Area served
|
Australia |
|
Key people
|
Rowan Munchenberg, Managing Director Andrew Whitechurch, EGM Retail Sinead Taylor, EGM Business Adam Harby, CFO Jason Chan, EGM Products & Marketing Nichola Holgate, Head of Communications & Public Affairs |
| Products |
Transaction accounts Savings accounts Home loans Term deposits Credit cards |
| Website | Bankwest |
Bankwest, previously known as The Bank of Western Australia is an Australian full-service bank based in Perth, Western Australia. Formerly a wholly owned subsidiary of HBOS plc, it was sold in October 2008 to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia for A$2.1 billion and operates as a division of its parent company.
Bankwest also has offices in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney.
In 1895, the Government of Western Australia established the Agricultural Bank of Western Australia as a rural lender to support the State's farming industries. Despite its name, it was technically not a bank, in that it did not collect deposits from the public, its liabilities being government bonds. It was a government instrumentality that lent exclusively to farmers.
In 1945, the Agricultural Bank became a full trading bank and changed its name to the Rural and Industries Bank of Western Australia (also known as R&I Bank). This enabled it to expand its retail and commercial banking services throughout the state. In 1956 it became a savings bank, and in 1985 the first Sydney stores opened.
The bank was incorporated in 1990, and then in 1994 changed its name to the Bank of Western Australia Limited, with the trading name Bankwest, in preparation for privatisation. In December 1995, the Bank of Scotland acquired the bank, and as part of the sale agreement, offered 49 per cent of the shares in Bankwest to the public. Bankwest shares listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on 1 February 1996.
In 2001, Halifax Group (a large UK financial institution) merged with Bank of Scotland to form HBOS plc. HBOS then acquired all the outstanding shares of Bankwest, making it HBOS's wholly owned subsidiary.
In 2003, Bankwest announced the acquisition of API Finance from Australian Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (API) for $300m in line with its industry specialisation growth strategy in the business banking segment.
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