The Regional Australia Bank handed out a total of $33,997.87 to more than 30 local sporting and community groups last week as part of its Community Partnership Program.
The Cobar Preschool Association collected $4,209, Cobar Junior Rugby League $3,551, Auto Club of Cobar $2,070 and the Copper City Men’s Shed $2,489.
Cobar branch manager Kelly Fairbank said the bank’s Community Partnership Program is now in its ninth year, and this year’s donations reached a staggering $840,000.
“This year we had 838 supporters of the program which is up 93 on last year,” she said.
Ms Fairbank said the Cobar branch staff were pleased to see the amount contributed to the local community this year had increased $9,475 on last year’s total.
“We look forward to growing it more next year,” she said.
Under the program, new bank customers open a transaction account and select which local group they would like to support.
Regional Australia Bank then calculates the average annual balance of all supporters’ accounts and donates one per cent of the total to the cause on the customers’ behalf – all without costing them a cent.
Over the past few years, the bank has been able to contribute more than $1.5million dollars to deserving community groups.
“We’re immensely proud of our ability to deliver these kinds of social and environmental returns to our regional communities,” Ms Fairbank said.
“For a bank like ours, which is founded on the promise to operate in the best interests of our customers and communities, it’s entirely fitting that our customers are able to lead the way in initiatives like this, given that they’ll often be the ones benefitting from the positive impacts of this program.”
Regional Australia Bank CEO Kevin Dupé, said the Community Partnership Program is just one of the ways in which the bank can assist their customers and communities.
“Regional Australia Bank is proud to continue delivering the Community Support Program in 2017, enabling it to continue enhancing the quality of life and a strong sense of community for the regions it serves,” Mr Dupé said.
He said the bank’s goal for the Community Partnership Program in 2018 is $1million and he invited local residents to get on board and choose to bank with them, so that they can take advantage of this initiative and enjoy both better value from their financial institution, and help create local communities that can fully prosper and thrive.
