The Bank of Melbourne initially rebadged the Victorian business of St George Bank, another wholly owned subsidiary of Westpac, as part of a major local branding strategy. The customer-facing activities of the business operate independently of Westpac. Westpac has owned the Bank of Melbourne, and the rights to the brand, since its acquisition of the bank in 1997.[1]
On 3 April 1997, Westpac made a $1.43 billion bid to acquire the Bank of Melbourne; on 29 September 1997, holders of 96% of the ordinary shares of the Bank of Melbourne voted to approve the proposal. Conditions of approval for the takeover required Westpac to continue operating the entity as the Bank of Melbourne for three years.
The entity traded under that brand name until January 2004, at which point the brand name was retired and replaced with Westpac.[1] In 2008, Westpac merged with the St George Bank.
In 2011, Westpac relaunched a redesigned Bank of Melbourne brand, trading with the infrastructure and employees of St George Bank in Victoria and led by Chief Executive Scott Tanner.[3][4] Bank of Melbourne's logo is a navy blue shield, reflecting the architecture of Melbourne[5] and Victoria's state colour. The logo was created by Ogilvy and Designworks.[6]
The bank has branches across metropolitan Melbourne and other primary urban centres including Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong and Shepparton. It has a local executive team led by Chief Executive Mark Melvin, an Advisory Board chaired by prominent business figure Elizabeth Proust, and a CBD call centre to serve customers over the phone.
In 2015, Bank of Melbourne was announced as the anchor tenant in the Rialto's $100 million Mid town redevelopment,[7] timed to mark the 30th anniversary of the iconic skyscraper. The bank moved its head office to the redeveloped Rialto building on the corner of Collins and King streets in the Melbourne central business district in 2017.
