Commonwealth Bank

"We’re always focused on bringing our customers simple and easy solutions to manage their money.   This means we constantly look for ways to improve the lived experience for customers using our products and services. For our credit card customers, we developed SurePay Purchase Instalment plans to help manage their everyday spend.   At its core, SurePay Purchase instalment plans allow eligible customers to take greater control of their credit card purchases by allowing them to breakdown purchases into smaller amounts, and choose the amount they would like to pay off, based how much you can afford each month with a simple one-off set up fee and is also interest free.   We used design thinking principles to develop the feature, user testing, and worked closely with our customers and team to validate the approach and ensure the delivery was simple and easy. What is live in market, is that with a click of a button in the CommBank app, customers can select a SurePay Purchase instalment plan that suits their needs.   I’m proud of the way our team was able to come together and design a modern solution that can help support our customers in a way that they’ve been asking for. We know our customers circumstances change and this is just another way we are helping our customers manage their money." Vibha Singh Kanwar Crew Lead, Credit Cards

We’ve read the 2024 Federal Budget so you don’t have to. Here’s everything you need to know from our Chief Economist, Stephen Halmarick 👇 👪 Cost of living support in the form of redesigned income tax cuts with the focus shifted down to low-middle income earners. ⚡ From the first of July 2024, the government will provide rebates of $300 to every household in Australia. 🏡 $1.9 billion to enhance Commonwealth Rent Assistance by 10%, building on last year's 15% increase. 📚 Support for tertiary students by changing the indexation of student debt, backdated to 2023. This means a student with the average debt of $26,500 will receive a credit worth $1,200. 💊 $3.4 billion in additional support for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), including treatments for certain types of heart disease and breast cancer. 👷 $6.2 billion in new initiatives to assist in building more homes. $1 billion will be made available to the states to unblock utility and infrastructure bottlenecks that is preventing housing being built. Head to the comments to read our detailed report of the 2024 Budget.

“The number of infants without access to clean drinking water is huge and these children grow up with serious health issues as a result. We've worked with scientists on a product that can help provide clean drinking water. Tapping into renewable energy and nanotechnology, the product will see clean drinking water become readily available to underprivileged women and infants in villages. I'm excited to say that we are almost ready and the first country we’ll launch in is India. To continue nurturing the bilateral relationship between Australia and India, and to align with the Indian Prime Minister’s vision of clean drinking water for all, I want to give back to the community, specifically women and children. We want to release this product in Indian villages for free to help people lead a cleaner, healthier life, and give an equal chance to everyone.” Get to know more about Sheba Nandkeolyar, Founder and CEO of MultiConnexions Group, in this insightful conversation with Shivani Gopal on the Leading Women podcast in the comments below.   #CBAWomeninFocus

“I originally wanted to be a teacher, but I somehow ended up as a professional athlete! I got into volleyball by accident, my brother asked me to fill in at a social game and that was how it all began. I represented Australia on the Indoor floorboards for ten years and then went on to be a professional beach volleyball athlete from my late 20’s for another 10 years.   Towards the end of my beach volleyball career, I realised that there were professional business opportunities by sharing my story as an athlete, through both panels and public speaking. I started off speaking with my knees shaking reading word for word off my notes but over time I’ve progressed in confidence and skill.   Me and my former teammate, Natalie Cook, realised that a lot of corporate companies wanted to engage in beach volleyball and incorporate sport into their team building exercises. We put together team building opportunities and realised that was another great way of doing what we loved and earning an income from it.   When I retired from being an athlete, I continued sharing my story and the opportunities grew. I realised that my success was grounded by the things I really love doing. I started to life coach and mentor others to help them be the best versions of themselves to support them reach their goals.   The biggest lesson I’ve learnt in business is resilience, because it keeps you focused on the big goals and bouncing back from setbacks. If you don’t succeed at first, you will try and try again. All of the losses eventually lead to the big win. You need to be patient and continue to have the mindset that the win will come, as long as you are doing the work and develop that belief in yourself.   When I look at opportunities in the business world, I look for ways that I can teach people about unpacking their own success stories and coaching them on presentation skills that I have learnt, which I’m doing now with athletes and business people.   If you incorporate some of the aspects of being an athlete into your everyday business life, you’re more likely to succeed. It’s all about nourishing the mind and body with the right mindset, nutrition, hydration, movement and recovery. That’s my idea of being a Corporate Athlete.   What drives me every day is the idea of freedom, I don’t like to be or have an ordinary life, I love the freedom of running my own business, my own life and my own show.   If I could tell my younger self one thing it would be to be kind to yourself, especially during the moments of loss.” Kerri Pottharst OAM OLY Founder & Director, The Athlete Story

“The one person though who has been there throughout my career, who has backed me every step of the way, and who inspires me the most is my Mum. My Mum came out to Australia in the mid 1950’s. Her and her mother (my Baba) were Russian and had been living in fairly challenging circumstances in Harbin, China before taking a chance on coming to Australia and the prospect of a better life. Speaking only Mandarin and Russian, my Mum completed school and won a place at Teacher’s College. From such humble beginnings, and with many hurdles overcome, Mum became an outstanding educator choosing to work in schools with economic disadvantage to give those students the best start in life she could – through education. She’s the best role model I could possibly have. She shows what can happen when you are given access to opportunity and then make the most of it. Every day I’m thankful for my Mum who’s given me so much, and this weekend we celebrate all the wonderful Mothers out there as well. Wishing you all a Happy Mother's Day.” Natasha Greenwood GAICD General Manager of AgriBusiness

Well what a night - our second Unity Gala Ball made possible by the amazing council members and support crew at #commbanklife. Nearly 400 people attended this amazing Candyland themed event to support our LGBTQIA+ community. Our council are all volunteers and do this on top of their day jobs and it is a privilege to lead this team. We raised on the night an impressive $95,000 which will go to a worthy recipient BlaQ Aboriginal Corporation who are doing some good work for Indigenous LGBTQIA+ youth. A big shout to our Group Exec sponsor Michael Vacy-Lyle and Caroline Hudson for their unwavering support of the work this council does #commbank #pride #lgbtqia #whatanight

When we’re feeling the pinch (the money kind) we need to get creative to build a brighter future. That’s why we’ve developed the Brighter Side, our new eight-part TV series where we explore practical ways to make the most of your money. Throughout the series, our hosts Georgie Tunny, Narelda Jacobs, Jessica Irvine, Adam Liaw and Evan Lucas meet Australians from all over the country, who share bright ideas for living well - including clever side hustles, meal-time ideas and money-saving tips. Tune in Saturdays at 6pm on 10 and 10 Play from this Saturday 11th May.

“I feel inspired on a day-to-day basis by the customers that I meet who have had the courage to take the steps and build their own business, because owning your own business can be really daunting. I do a lot of work with businesses on transitioning to becoming more sustainable. A lot of businesses just aren’t quite sure on how to start the transition. I work with them on providing access to sustainable products and putting together action plans. I had a customer come to me recently to discuss the challenge in transitioning to electric or green practices and my advice to him was to start off small with actions like changing staff cars to electric cars. My role is quite diverse, you get to see so many customers that have started off small and now they’re running multi-million-dollar businesses. On the flip side, I find it really rewarding when we’re able to help customers who are facing challenges and support them to find the best solutions for their business. If there’s one thing, I could tell my younger self it would be to be more patient. When I was younger, I kept thinking ‘I just want to go straight to the top’. My first job was as a temp, photocopying superannuation application forms and bank cheques. I then moved into the graduate programme and have worked my way up to where I am now. One of the most valuable things I’ve learnt over my career is to identify the areas that you need to develop within the most, push yourself into these areas and move outside of your comfort zone.” Chris Moldrich General Manager, Asset Finance and Business Financial Assist

“My lived experience is drawn from being a parent to my son who lived with a significant disability. This means I really understand why being included and treated with dignity is so important.  My role in a nutshell, is all about helping to remove the barriers to banking for our customers and that includes those who live with disability, whether it is visible or hidden.    Which is why I’m really happy to hear that CommBank has been nominated as a finalist in the Australian Disability Network's 2024 Disability Confidence Awards for the Equal Access Toolkit.      These awards highlight individuals and organisations who have shown a commitment to disability confidence. We are honoured to be named alongside the other nominees. The Equal Access Toolkit is designed to make banking easier by providing a range of practical tools that help customers with accessibility needs complete tasks independently in branch. These include items such as communication boards and cards, jumbo pens and signature guides through to customer preference cards.  It is about creating a dignified experience for each customer whilst empowering our people to support with confidence and care.    I feel that every day I can come to work and ideally make a difference for someone who I’ll probably never meet, but it’s the aspect of making people’s lives easier that matters. People need to be seen, to be heard and to feel valued and I think that’s why this work matters to me so much, because it’s about creating that equal opportunity for everyone, regardless of their situation, background or ability.”    Caroline Ghatt  Senior Manager, Accessibility and Inclusion 

“When I entered the Just Cuts™ Franchising network, most of the business still used paper docket books. Although this process and common-sense approach served the business well for over 30 years, we had to shift to keep up with a changing world. We needed to make sure that every salon in Australia had internet within their shopping centre, so we could update our salons with better technology for both our customers and teams. We faced some challenges around that, as internet isn't always reliable in concrete and shopping centres and all the rest, so it was essential that the software we were building could operate if it went offline. The biggest hurdle was getting all our franchisees on board with the changes, and over 230 salons came on that journey with us. They were really included in the day-to-day of the project roll out, how it worked for our hairdressers on the ground and what they needed as a business as well to serve over 100,000 clients a week. Taking our salons from analogue to digital was really about benchmarking and being able to view real-time data, which was quite new in the hairdressing world.” Listen to Amber Manning, CEO of Just Cuts™, discuss the journey of building a successful franchising network with Shivani Gopal on the Leading Women podcast in the comments below.   #CBAWomeninFocus