St.George Bank - Acquisition of BankSA (1992)

Acquisition of BankSA (1992)

The Bank of South Australia was an amalgamation of the State Bank of South Australia and the Savings Bank of South Australia, both of which were guaranteed by the State Government. After excessive insufficiently secured lending through the 1980s, the bank collapsed, and because of the guarantee, was bailed out by the State Government. The bank was split into the "bad bank" with the non-performing debts, and the "good bank". The "good bank" was sold to, and merged with, Advance Bank in 1992, and subsequently was purchased by St.George.

Both Advance Bank and St.George continued to run BankSA as a separate entity - it has 55 branches in metropolitan Adelaide, 66 in rural South Australia (totalling 121 overall in the state, more than any other bank in South Australia), four in the Northern Territory and one in Queensland.