The Advance Bank was an Australian

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

that existed from 1985 until 1997, when it merged with

St George Bank St.George Bank is an Australian bank with its headquarters in Sydney. Since a 2008 merger, the bank has been part of Westpac, having previously been an independent legal entity. In 2010, St.George was deregistered as a company and ceased to be ...

. It is not related to Advance Bank AG of Germany (which was shut down by

Allianz Allianz ( , ) is a German multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management. The company is one of the world's largest insurers and financial services groups. The ...

in 2003). It was established as the NSW Permanent Building & Investment Society in 1939. In 1982, it established a funds management division, Advance Asset Management, which is now a specialist asset management business within

Westpac Westpac Banking Corporation, known simply as Westpac, is an Australian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered at Westpac Place in Sydney, New South Wales. Established in 1817 as the Bank of New South Wales, it ...

. "Its focus is on asset allocation and risk management, implemented through a multi-manager process, providing investment opportunities across a range of asset classes, including shares, property, fixed interest and cash." The building society was

demutualised Demutualization is the process by which a customer-owned mutual organization (''mutual'') or co-operative changes legal form to a joint stock company. It is sometimes called stocking or privatization. As part of the demutualization process, member ...

in 1985 and became known as the Advance Bank. In 1995, Advance Bank acquired the

State Bank of South Australia The State Bank of South Australia was a bank created in 1896 and owned by the Government of South Australia. The bank became the subject of a two-year South Australian Royal Commission upon collapse in 1991. The surviving part of the bank now ...

, which it continued to run as a separate business unit as

BankSA BankSA, formerly known as the Bank of South Australia, the State Bank of South Australia and the Savings Bank of South Australia is the largest bank in South Australia. It is a subsidiary of Westpac. History Bank SA, formerly known as The Ba ...

. Advance Bank (and its BankSA subsidiary) was taken over in 1997 by

, itself another former building society. St George Bank was then taken over by

References

Banks established in 1985 Banks disestablished in 1997 Defunct banks of Australia Mutual savings banks in Australia 1939 establishments in Australia 1985 disestablishments in Australia {{Australia-company-stub