Celebrating International Women's Day, CEO Bernadette Inglis visited the team at the Dubbo branch, challenging them to strive for the confidence to pursue opportunities, to break down barriers and work to confidently achieve financial security and independence.

Ms Inglis has been the CEO for the past 20 months.

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"Having myself forged a long career in financial services, I'm pleased that we have evolved to truly break the mould. Having attracted some incredibly talented women and men to our team, today 72 per cent of our people are women, almost two-thirds of our Board are female, we employ almost 100 female managers and I'm proudly the first woman to head the organisation in over 11 decades."

Ms Inglis said she wants to empower women to strive for the confidence to pursue opportunities, while also sharing tips on the steps they can take to achieve financial security and independence.

"There's no doubt some women may face challenges in striving to achieve financial independence and security. We know that, on average, women live longer than men, retire with less superannuation, do more unpaid work and in some instances a gender pay gap continues to exist.

"I believe that everyone, regardless of gender, is equally deserving of reaching their financial goals and financial security, though I'm really passionate about empowering women to lead a healthy financial life."

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