Our Shareholders

At St.George we believe that through engaged people delivering great customer experiences we can consistently deliver superior financial results for our shareholders, and we have. Year on year we continue to deliver a great return on investment for our shareholders.

Highlights include*:

• Total assets have grown from $9bn in 1992 to now over $125 billion and over $1.1 billion in net profit
• Ten consecutive years of improvement on our Return on Equity, which currently stands at 23.2%
• Consistent improvement in our cost to income ratio, which currently stands at 42.5%
• We have had 15 consecutive dividend increases since March 2000

A compelling place to invest

Providing our shareholders with a compelling place to invest means:

• Operating our business openly and honestly through a strong governance framework
• Aiming to maximise return for our shareholders
• Delivering a sustainable operating environment
• Communicating in a timely and accurate manner.

Strong governance framework

Being open and honest is a critical priority of St.George. Our stakeholders must have complete confidence in the way we conduct our business. As such we have implemented and adhere to the most rigorous standards.

St.George complies with the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) Corporate Governance Council's 'Principles of Good Corporate Governance and Best Practice Recommendations'.

We have a range of corporate governance policies and charters that we regularly review and, where appropriate, update as part of our commitment to achieving best practice in this area:

• St.George Board Charter
• Audit Committee Charter
• Provision of Audit and Other (Non-Audit) Services by the External Auditor Policy
• Board Risk Management Committee Charter
• Due Diligence Committee Charter
• Nomination & Remuneration Committee Charter
• Code of Ethics
• Disclosure Policy and Communications Strategy
• Trading Policy
• Whistleblower Policy
• Bank's Constitution
• Anti-Money Laundering Policy

Business Ethics

At St.George our Code of Ethics and Values Statement are strongly embedded into our organisation.

They are our guiding principles, focused on: integrity, valuing one another, working as a team, delivering excellence and ensuring our customers receive great service.

We also operate by all applicable legislation, standards and codes which lays out some of the minimum industry requirements for banking.

St.George Board of Directors

The St.George Board of Directors is responsible for St.George’s overall performance and governance.

The Board oversees the performance and activities of the Bank through agreed goals and strategy, assesses performance against approved budgets, targets and strategies; oversees the management of the Bank’s business; oversees appropriate controls, systems and procedures; reviews matters of general corporate governance; monitors senior management performance and implementation of the Board approved strategies and approves and monitors material financial and other reporting.

The Board of Directors of St.George Bank has established committees to assist in the execution of its responsibilities.

Meet our Directors.

Committees

Board Audit Committee

The Board Audit Committee reviews and considers reports and recommendations from management. It makes recommendations to the Board in relation to the Bank’s financial reporting, APRA statutory reporting, systems for internal control and the internal and external audit processes.

Nomination and Remuneration Committee

The Nomination and Remuneration Committee makes recommendations to the Board on the composition and criteria for Board membership and the performance, tenure and remuneration framework for Directors. They also make recommendations regarding recruitment, remuneration and retention of senior executives and Group compensation, incentive and reward programs.

Due Diligence Committee

The Due Diligence Committee meets for the purposes of reviewing the planning memorandum and/or other procedures proposed by the Bank’s management for determining the content of disclosure documents to be issued in connection with capital raising or other major transactions proposed to be undertaken by the Bank. It oversees the due diligence and verification conducted in relation to such disclosure documents and recommends to the Board whether such disclosure documents can be issued and monitors compliance with the regulatory regime applicable to such documents.

Board Risk Management Committee

The Board Risk Management Committee oversees and monitors policies and procedures in relation to credit, liquidity, market, balance sheet and operational risks. Also it oversees and monitors the Bank’s compliance with regulatory capital requirements, the compliance systems in place by which management discharges its legal obligations in respect of the Bank’s business and the compliance systems and procedures within the Bank by which appropriate disclosure can be made to the Board of the risks just described.

Shareholder Communication

At St.George we recognise the importance of providing our shareholders with accurate and timely information. We do this by providing them with regular updates via our:

• Annual General Meeting
• Annual Reports
• Financial Results presentations
• Shareholder Newsletter
• Speeches and presentations
• Shareholder Centre