(21 July 2006 – Australia) St George has signed an online stockbroking agreement with E-Trade to provide online stockbroking services to the bank’s direct shares customers.The agreement between St George and E-Trade replaces the existing agreement between St George and HSBC, which expires in March 2007 and has a minimum term of three years.
Last month, E-Trade paid HSBC US$51 million for its Australian online stockbroking business.
E-Trade will provide services to St George under a white label arrangement to avoid any impact on customers who now also have access to the rest of E-Trade’s products and services.
St George general manager of direct shares Andrew Black said the bank was always searching for alliances that would benefit customers.