THE COMMUNITY Bank Mirboo North and District celebrated their 15th birthday today with a sausage sizzle, cookies and pens for staff, stakeholders and the community. 
Over the last decade and a half, the bank has given 80% of their profits back to the local community, with a current total of $2.6 million donated.
“Obviously we can't make a profit without customers, and we always say people have to bank somewhere, so they might as well come bank with us,” said Executive Officer Anne-Marie Dieperink. 
The bank was born when the town was left without one about 20 years ago. 
Locals rallied together and the Bendigo Bank was happy to sign an agency franchise at the time. 
One staff member manned the agency alongside a roster of volunteers who would sit in the agency one at a time, because there was a minimum of two staff required for it to be open. 
Five years in and the community once again got together to see if they could make it into a full branch, under the community banking model.
“They got a whole steering committee together. They went around town because they needed to sell $800,000 worth of shares locally to be able to source the funding to start the branch,” explained Anne-Marie. 
“They worked so hard because they still needed to get that money together and were successful at the last minute. They got over their target actually and then used that money to start up the bank. So that was 15 years ago now.”