Australia's Bendigo Bank is to provide customers with access to range of third party products, following its acquisition of a 30 per cent stake in finanical portal operator Inch Corp.
The joint initiative is expected to produce strong growth for both companies. "It provides Bendigo with a quantum leap in the functionality and product offering of its online business, while providing Inch with access to Bendigo's 600,000-strong customer base," say Rob Hunt and John O'Shea, managing directors of Bendigo Bank and Inch Corp, respectively.
The current Inch site, www.inch.com.au, will be rebranded as Bendigo Bank, and the new portal will go live in January 2002. The business is to be staffed and managed by Inch.
Hunt says: "A growing number of customers are choosing online banking and through the portal development we will vastly expand the services we can offer to them. Customers will be able to choose from a wide range of leading fund managers, health funds, insurers and other providers."