Bank celebrates 20 years
The Drouin and District Community Bank celebrated 20 years of serving the region last month.
Formed back in 2002 by a group of directors who aimed to establish a bank that would return profits to the community and share the benefit of the returns locally, the DDCB now reports having returned $6.9 million to Drouin and surrounds.
Bank chair Rod Dunlop said the bank was positive about its future.
"We are really excited, it has been an amazing journey," he said.
"The vision that the directors had, in saying that we need a bank in Drouin... and 20 years on here we are, having put $6.9 million back into the community, I think they can feel really proud - and the community should be really proud."
He said that because of community support, the bank was able to do more and more each year to support the community.
"The future looks bright, so as long as people understand that if they bank with us, 80 per cent of the profits have to be returned to the community."
"I think we've made a really huge contribution to the wellbeing of Drouin, Longwarry, quite a lot of our customers are also from Warragul, they get that community banks actually work for the community," he added.
Mr Dunlop said there were a number of different community members who hold shares in the business.
"The shareholders who were brave enough to buy shares... they've had a really positive outcome for their investment," he said.
DDCB now has 5700 customers, a figure which they said continues to grow.
The official 20th birthday cake was cut at the 2022 grants recipients' cheque presentation earlier this month in front of a number of community members from groups DDCB supports.