Suncorp Group

Queensland established the State Accident Insurance Office in 1916,[6] to provide mandatory injury compensation insurance to workers in the state's business sector. New legislation soon after created a larger insurance body, the State Government Insurance Office (SGIO) which took over the State Accident Insurance Office. General insurance, third party and life products were added. SGIO later expanded into building society operations, superannuation, and finance.

In 1960, new legislation establishing the SGIO as a separate corporation was passed, and the group became subject to state regulatory oversight. In 1971, the SGIO took another step toward full-fledged corporate status, forming its own board of directors. At this time, the operations involving injury compensation for workers were placed under a separate board. By 1976, as SGIO's insurance operations took on a more commercial orientation, the company closed down its building society operations.

The next step toward the SGIO's move toward the private sector came in 1985. Under new legislation, the company dropped the SGIO name in favour of the name Suncorp and its employees lost their status as civil servants. At the same time, Suncorp became an independent corporation, although still government controlled. By the mid 1990s, Suncorp was an allfinanz (i.e. with combined banking, financial, and insurance operations) group and had assets of nearly $10 billion.

Metway Bank started as the Metropolitan Permanent Building Society which was founded in 1959.[6] In the late 1980s, Metropolitan joined the trend among Australia's building societies to expand into being full-scale banks. In 1988, Metropolitan abandoned its status as a building society to reincorporate as a bank. Metway, as the new bank was called, listed publicly and began acquiring a number of rival banks and building societies. Metway became the largest Queensland based bank by the mid 1990s. Metway's operations also extended into the other eastern states and the assets of the bank were more than $7 billion.

QIDC had its origins in Agbank which was a state government farming financier that was started in 1902.[6] In 1986, new Queensland legislation was passed to incorporate and regulate the bank as the Queensland Industry Development Corporation. By the mid 1990s, QIDC had assets of approximately $3 billion.[6]

In response to sweeping changes in Australia's financial and insurance industries in the mid 1990s, and especially the increasing convergence of the banking and insurance sectors, the state owned QIDC and Suncorp were amalgamated with Metway Bank in 1996. The new company, Suncorp-Metway, became one of the largest insurance and finance groups in Australia, ranking fifth in the national market. By 1998, the company's combined assets exceeded $22 billion.

The Queensland government initially controlled 68 percent of the new company, but quickly made good on its promise to sell off most of its stake. In 1997, the company conducted a public offering that reduced the government's stake in Suncorp-Metway to 4 percent, with the last remaining government shares sold one year later. In 1999, Suncorp-Metway completed the integration of the Metway, QIDC and Suncorp operations, and launched a single unified Suncorp-Metway brand. As part of this process, the company also trimmed its retail network, shutting down a number of redundant branches.

Logo used 1998–2016

After its integration phase, Suncorp-Metway began putting into place a new strategy. The company sought to launch itself on a truly national scale, replacing its allfinanz model with a new financial conglomerate strategy. The company wanted to expand, particularly in its more profitable insurance division. The company made its first acquisition in 2001 by taking over GIO General Ltd, which was then part of AMP. That purchase made Suncorp-Metway the second ranked in Australia in terms of income from general insurance in annual premiums.

The company carried out another rebranding exercise in 2002, adopting the Suncorp name for all of its Queensland operations, and for non-insurance operations outside of the state. The company's insurance operations, excluding Queensland, took on the GIO name.

Suncorp continued to build up its insurance portfolio into the middle of the decade. The company acquired 50 percent of the Queensland-based RACQ Insurance, a joint venture originally formed between AMP and RACQ. Suncorp bought out AMP's share of the joint venture in 2002. Also in 2002, Suncorp purchased half of RAA Insurance from the RAA. In 2004, the company purchased Tasmania's RACT Insurance from the RACT.

The Suncorp Business Centre in Townsville.

Suncorp then began preparations for a still larger takeover of insurance giant Promina Group Limited. By early 2007, the two companies had agreed the terms of a merger deal valued at AUD 7.9 billion ($5.9 billion), which represented one of the largest acquisition deals completed in Australia's financial sector since the beginning of the new century.[7]

Promina was formerly part of the UK-based insurance giant Royal and Sun Alliance until it spun off the business in Australia as a separate public company in 2003.[8] The merger transformed Suncorp into a true giant in Australia, doubling its assets to nearly AUD 85 billion ($65 billion).

On 19 April 2009, Suncorp announced a re-branding of the banking arm of the company to Suncorp Bank. The reason behind the re-branding is to give the company a view that Suncorp is a bank with an insurance arm, not an insurance company with a banking division. In July 2022, Suncorp Group agreed terms to sell Suncorp Bank to the Australia & New Zealand Banking Group for A$5 billion.[19] In August 2023 the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission blocked the deal.[20]

Suncorp acquired insurance joint ventures with motoring clubs RACQ and RAA in 2001, but chose to divest them in 2010. Suncorp entered into a joint venture agreement with RACT Insurance in Tasmania in 2007, but sold its 50% interest back to RACT in July 2021.[21] [22]