Commonwealth Bank

“The concept of ‘kulila’ is a fundamental leadership skill that has served me well over my career. It’s a Pitjantjatjara term that means to listen deeply to learn.   We have to listen to the stories and experiences of our communities if we are to advocate effectively for improved outcomes.   Part of my role at CommBank is to advocate for change through two-way learning. Working with my colleagues in Business Banking has strengthened my knowledge, learning from each other we are able to develop tailored solutions to better meet the needs of our Indigenous business customers. It is important to understand the impacts of past legislation that excluded Indigenous people from full participation in the economy, which has led to a lack of intergenerational wealth impacting Indigenous businesses today.   The importance of ‘kulila’ or listening was reinforced by my father throughout my life. He was a stockman and a small business owner, at the heart of his business model was the notion of giving back to community.     I love my job because it enables me to drive social impact from within one of Australia’s largest financial institutions.    My goal is to contribute to a thriving Indigenous businesses sector, by listening and learning together we can drive better commercial and social outcomes.” Simone Kenmore Executive Manager, Indigenous Business Banking

“There are so many memories built in a home. From your childhood through to buying your first home, it’s such an important aspect of a person's life. Finding homeowners their dream property that ticks as many boxes as possible, is by far the most fulfilling part of my role. I love chatting with my clients, getting to know them and having in depth conversations that help with the end-to-end process of purchasing. Relationship management includes helping clients with both lending and other banking goals and needs, it’s such an interesting role because you get to meet so many different people from a variety of backgrounds. You learn a lot about different industries from clients and get an insight into other people’s relationships with money.” Scott Duncan Relationship Manager, Premier Banking

We’re giving 50 CommBank business customers the opportunity to win the CommBank Matildas to promote their business. Entries open on 17.09.24 and ends 01.12.24. For full T&C's and eligibility criteria please see the comments below. 

“In the same way you strengthen different muscles to build physical fitness, mental fitness is built through practising a range of different psychological skills. These skills allow us to respond to setbacks, sustain healthy relationships, navigate change and uncertainty, and make effective decisions.     The Smiling Mind App was created to help people build their mental fitness in fun, accessible and impactful ways. Designed by our in-house mental health experts and psychologists, the app is completely free to use and available 24/7. It’s your mental fitness companion in your back pocket, supporting you anytime, anywhere.     We know that a lot of business owners may be having a tough time as cost-of-living pressures take their toll. The Smiling Mind App offers a range of tools for business owners and their employees to support overall mental wellbeing.     The collection created with CommBank provides a versatile toolkit to counter the stress and uncertainty businesses are currently experiencing.     What inspires me at work on a day-to-day basis is the constant feedback we get from the people we’re supporting and the heartfelt thanks for the difference we make to millions of Australians' lives, every day.”     Sarah La Roche  CEO of Smiling Mind 

We’re continuing to invest resources to fight scams. In the last financial year, our anti-scam measures have helped to halve scam losses for our customers. There is more to be done by banks, telcos and social media, but here are a few measures we’ve introduced in FY24 👇   📱 We’ve continued to add market leading anti-scam technologies to help protect Australians, collaborated with other banks and telcos, and, we’re actively encouraging others to join the Government’s anti-scam intelligence loop.   ✔ Our NameCheck technology prevented scam payments worth more than $40 million and stopped over $370 million in mistaken payments.   📞 Our CallerCheck technology allows you to verify whether a caller claiming to be from CommBank is legitimate, by triggering a security message in your CommBank app.   🔎 Our CustomerCheck technology allows you to identify yourself securely, when visiting a branch or speaking to a CommBank specialist in person. Our focus remains on further reducing customer scam losses and volumes. Head to the comments to read more about our commitment to helping customers stay safe from scams. Always remember to Stop🛑, Check🔎 and Reject❌ anything that looks suspicious. 

Online romance scams are on the rise and scammers will often go to great lengths to convince you that the relationship is real. As our branch manager Sam Bazzi found out recently, online scammers can be convincing.   “I recently had an experience with a customer who had been sending money overseas, they wanted to send $35,000 to an overseas account. This was flagged by someone on our team as it looked suspicious. It’s a common occurrence with romance scams for the scammer to request urgent funds and in this case, the scammer had asked for funds to medically evacuate their sick daughter, who was stranded in another country, as they could not access their own accounts. The customer trusted this person completely and had been talking with them online for a while with numerous promises of holidays and gifts. In circumstances like this, it’s critical that we show customers empathy and understanding to help support them when they may have been scammed. I was able to educate them on the risk of scams and what to look out for in the future by sharing similar stories. I’m so glad that we were able to help save this customer from losing some of her life savings on such a scam.” Always remember to Stop🛑, Check🔎 and Reject❌ anything that looks suspicious. 

Did you know that more than 80% of Aussies think the community should be more involved in policy decisions, with most feeling they’re not being listened to on issues they care about? That’s why today we are excited to announce our partnership with AMPLIFY. AMPLIFY is a grassroots, non-partisan and completely independent organisation bringing together people from all walks of life to find uncommon ground on the issues the community cares about most. It will host events, facilitate online conversations and come up with community-led initiatives which will be amplified to politicians to help identify solutions to drive real positive change for all Australians. Head to the comments to find out more, including how you can join for free 👇

We first set up shop in Stanthorpe in the local post office in 1872. 152 years later and we’re still here, helping the local community with all of their banking needs.

“I get excited thinking about what the next major transformation at CommBank will look like. I am lucky enough to be in a position to be able to visualise it and actually shape it. Today we live in a world of extremely fast and widespread internet connections, high performance cloud- and edge-computing solutions, and unprecedented AI capabilities, which create new opportunities for us to enhance and expand our service offerings. My role as a Distinguished AI scientist is about using Artificial Intelligence to protect our customers against a continuously evolving threat landscape and making sure we use AI in a safe, secure and trustworthy way.   I have always been curious and loved dealing with complex and dynamic systems. I love the challenge of implementing mechanisms in a system that can improve its performance when facing unpredictable or unknown situations. Here at CommBank through using various machine learning models, we are working to optimise and streamline our capabilities, processes, and service offering in several different ways. We use the power of language models to analyse data and serve up relevant information quickly meaning our machines can do the heavy lifting while our teams can focus on solving real, impactful problems ultimately delivering a more positive experience for our customers and communities.   With a desire to consistently deliver great experiences for our customers and communities we need to keep innovating, so setting a clear vision and strategy allows our people the opportunity to experiment and learn new ways of transforming our business. It is the ability to harnessing the power of AI to transform the way we work, the way we bank and the way we live, that I love doing what I do.”   Ashkan x CommBank  Distinguished AI Scientist

“Rewards and recognition allow you to get traction. Now a year on since winning ‘Emerging Leader in Tech’ at the Women's Agenda Leadership Awards 2023, we’ve been privileged with a far bigger platform and access to opportunities we may not have had otherwise. At last year’s awards, I walked in not knowing anybody, but straight away I knew it was going to be a fun night. There was such an impressive line-up of nominees, so just to be around that calibre of women was incredible. There were scientists, technologists, and women who wouldn’t necessarily see themselves as innovators or entrepreneurs in the traditional sense, but they absolutely are because they’re solving issues that move society forward. My volunteer role with #TechDiversity is all about creating a workforce in the technology sector that is representative of society and the importance of doing that given tech is prevalent in all our lives. It’s funny because the work that I do in the diversity and inclusion space is relatively new, even though I’ve been a part of it for 20-plus years. It just shows it’s never too late. Winning the award means a lot to me personally, but really it’s a win for our team. It affirms our work and purpose, especially because everyone in the organisation is so passionate about what we do.” Sponsored again by CommBank Women in Focus, the Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards are back for 2024. Luli Adeyemo, Executive Director, TechDiversity, winner of ‘Emerging Leader in Tech’ in 2023, and this year’s event night MC, shares why the awards are so impactful for finalists and winners. Do you know an incredible female leader who deserves some recognition? Nominate or enter yourself by 21 August – link the first comment. #CBAWomeninFocus