Bank of Queensland cemented its commitment to the northern suburbs today with the official opening of a double boost in banking services, with a new locally owned and managed Bank of Queensland (BOQ) branch as well as a dedicated Business Banking Centre in Geebung.
Bank of Queensland Managing Director David Liddy said the concept of a bank opening branches, let alone opening a branch and a Business Banking Centre in the same suburb on the same day, is rarely heard of but is common practice for Bank of Queensland.
"We have been defying the "Big Bank" trend of closing branches for many years now and have actually increased our branch network by 42 new branches to 135 branches and our dedicated Business Banking Centres from five to nine throughout State in the past two and-a-half years," Mr Liddy said.
Lord Mayor Campbell Newman was on hand to officially open the new banking facilities at a community celebration and said it was good news for Geebung that Bank of Queensland was now in the local community.
"The opening of banking services is more than just improving personal access to a bank for the community, it also helps develop and rejuvenate the local economy to provide a bit of security, service, and choice," Cr Newman said.
The branch has been established under the Bank's unique Owner/Managed Branch structure and will be owned and managed by experienced banker Jennifer French who brings two decades' banking and finance experience to the community.
"As well as being an experienced banker, I also live locally and have worked within close proximity to Geebung at various stages throughout my career, so it's great to be 'coming home' and bringing banking services into my own backyard," Jennifer said.
"I'm looking forward to meeting the local community, building a long and rewarding association with them and being directly responsible for the service they receive," she said.
Both the branch and the Business Banking Centre will endorse Bank of Queensland's dedicated customer service known as person2person™ banking, which is about building relationships with the customer.
Bank of Queensland Geebung Business Banking Manager Robert Franklin said the new centre would employ four experienced business bankers including a specialist debtor finance business banker.
"With more than 60 years' combined banking and finance experience we hope to be the banker of choice for the growing number of small to medium businesses in the area," Robert said.
Bank of Queensland Geebung and the Business Banking Centre are located at 106 Robinson Road , Geebung. The branch can be contacted on 3216 2688 and the Business Banking Centre on 3131 3000.