Commonwealth Bank of Australia
ABN 48 123 123 124
Commonwealth Bank determined
to bring financial literacy to one
million kids
$40 million investment in School Banking
Foundation’s StartSmart program to extend to primary schools
Sydney, 19 November 2009: The Commonwealth Bank has today announced a five year, $40 million
investment in its long running school banking program as part of a strengthening commitment to
financial literacy in Australia.
The reinvigoration of school banking for primary schools will play a central part in the Group’s
determination to improve the financial literacy of more than one million Australian school children over
the next five years, under the banner of onemillionkids.
Commonwealth Bank CEO, Ralph Norris, said the Group has been teaching Australian children about
money for nearly 80 years. But the world has changed, and the once simple lessons of personal finance
have grown more complex, and the ways children learn has evolved.
“While Australia as a country has navigated reasonably well through the global financial crisis, one of the
lessons we have learnt is that everyone needs a good, basic understanding of money management,” Mr
Norris said.
“Financial literacy is an important life skill and the earlier kids start learning good savings habits, the
better equipped they will become.
“Quite simply, the more children that have access to learning opportunities, the more financially secure
our future generations will be,” he said.
Mr Norris said the reinvigoration of school banking is the first in a series of major initiatives targeting
young Australians.
“Many Australians across all generations remember fondly their first Commonwealth Bank savings
account and the school banking experience. Now we’re making this program bigger and better than
ever, to reach more schools and more students,” he said.
“The program currently encompasses 2,500 schools and more than 90,000 students and over the next
five years we aim to have well over 4,000 schools involved and over 300,000 students actively saving,”
he said.
The reinvigoration of the Commonwealth Bank’s school banking program will include:
$40 million investment over five years.
Recruitment of 45 School Liaison Officers across the country to work with branch managers to
become more involved with schools in their community and also support those volunteers and
primary school staff who run the school banking every week.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
ABN 48 123 123 124
A series of interactive, practical and fun activities, including savings rewards and online games,
new money box designs to add to our traditional tin money boxes, and school visits from savings
superheroes, the Dollarmites.
Significant technology upgrades including new software and online support that will make school
banking easier for school coordinators.
Mr Norris said the Group would also be extending the award-winning StartSmart financial literacy
workshops to primary schools from February 2010. StartSmart is an educational program administered
by the Commonwealth Bank Foundation.
“The Foundation’s StartSmart workshops have reached over 100,000 secondary school students since
they began in 2007. In extending these into primary schools next year, we hope to reach another 60,000
primary-age students,” Mr Norris said.
Mr Norris said onemillionkids will be an important platform for the Group to build and link all its activities
targeted at young people, whether they are Commonwealth Bank customers or not, under a common
goal where kids, parents, teachers and others interested in driving financial literacy in Australia will be
able to learn, interact, have fun and contribute.
“onemillionkids is the starting point for our determination to support a more financially literate future
generation. It is the commitment that underpins all of our current activities and the foundation from which
we will continue to evolve existing programs and develop new initiatives,” Mr Norris said.
“onemillionkids has endless potential for building new communities based on learning, interacting and
having fun, and delivering far greater reach for these all important financial life skills,” he said.
onemillionkids is designed to do nothing less than educate more than one million Australian school
children in financial literacy by 2015.
See interactive media release at: www.interactivemediarelease.com/CBA/onemillionkids
ENDS
For further information:
Stephanie Barry
General Manager, Public Relations
P 02 9378 3904
M 0407 571 857
Sarah Gibbons
Public Relations Advisor
P 02 9378 5096
M 0403 681 515
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