St George Bank has leased additional floor space in Central Park, St Georges Terrace, following the green light for three new branches as part of expansion in Western Australia.
An extra 270 square metres of office space on the 12th floor of Central Park will allow the bank to move its auto finance team from the 11th floor.
This will create space for a recruitment team and for the expansion of the commercial services department, which will underpin the bank’s growth plans in WA, according to St George state manager Martin Barrett.
St George will open a new commercial services branch in Osborne Park, with final plans for others in Fremantle and Kewdale expected shortly.
The new branches end the isolation for St George’s until-now sole WA branch in Central Park. The bank recently celebrated 10 years in the Central Park building – its only branch in WA during that time, apart from a small retail services branch in Morley, which operated between 1994 and 1996.
The Osborne Park branch, to be located on the corner of Harborne Street and Scarborough Beach Road, will open in September, Mr Barrett said.
He said the new branch was in line with the bank’s WA expansion plans, which had required substantial staff recruitment.
“We certainly see it as an important step towards our progress and evolution in WA,” Mr Barrett told WA Business News.
The Fremantle and Kewdale branches will initially focus on retail and commercial services.
However, Mr Barrett did not rule out those branches servicing the household sector.
Based in Sydney, St George has a growing presence in WA.
According to Mr Barrett’s estimates, the bank currently has about 5 per cent of WA’s commercial banking sector, ranking it sixth in the local market.
The bank is targeting 10 per cent of this market over the next two years.
St George was considered the benchmark relationship banker in a recent East & Partners banking survey.
