Hume Wins Youth Banking and Education Award
02/09/2012
Hume has won the Best Value Australian Youth Banking and Education Award for all mutual banks, credit unions and building societies. The award recognises the provision of excellent financial education and banking services for primary and secondary students.
“I am really proud we have won this award,” shared Mr Andrew Saxby CEO of Hume Building Society. “We aim to meet the needs of this vulnerable and important group of people in our community and to be acknowledged nationally as doing an excellent job is one of the highlights of my time at Hume so far.”
“A few years ago we recognised that the major banks had let school banking and the needs of the youth go unattended so we sought to fill that gap.” explained Mr Saxby. “Not only do we provide school banking where we actually arrange the collection and drop off of all banking, but we also go out to
schools and talk to the students about money.”
“Financial literacy hasn’t been part of the Australian school curriculum and we feel an obligation to help close that gap. We can’t solve the problem, but we aim to help where we can.”
The CANSTAR youth banking and education award compared 34 institutions from across Australia. While products made up half the overall score, the other half focused on institutional investment in education, parental material, workshops and school banking.
CANSTAR researched all the products, tools, website education, information and programs on the market to pinpoint the most useful and comprehensive for parents, children and teachers.
“We congratulate Hume Building Society on winning this really important award.” said Mr Steve Mickenbecker Head of Research at CANSTAR. “Hume has worked hard for many years to provide such genuine, high levels of service to the youth and I am very pleased to see them win this inaugural regional award.”
“Hume seeks to develop products that meet the needs of customers at all stages in life. The award reinforces our passion for financial literacy which is felt across the entire organisation.” said Mr Saxby.
There are over 2,500 students and 37 schools participating in Hume’s school banking program. The program also provides online financial education material focusing on particular life stages of children and teenagers.
“Hume continually looks at ways we can engage children with money matters and teach them financial life skills” said Mr. Saxby.
Hume also encourages saving by holding competitions with great prizes for regular savers like iPods and laptops. The Clancy Koala savings account pays bonus interest if $10 is deposited and no withdrawals are made in one month.
Hume’s financial literacy program was also recognised for its efforts in social marketing for improving financial literacy among children as a national finalist in the 2011 Australian Marketing Institute (“AMI”) Awards for Marketing Excellence.
Hume also regularly hosts seminars for adults on a variety of topics, including education bonds, investing, retirement and life insurance.
