Mike Hirst will remain as managing director of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, working under an employment contract with no fixed term.Hirst replaced Rob Hunt as Bendigo CEO in 2009. Hunt served as CEO for 19 years, a record Hirst's board does not expect him to match."He won't serve as long as some," Bendigo chair Robert Johansen told Banking Day yesterday.

Hirst approached yesterday's annual meeting in a confident frame of mind, using his address to explain why the bank "is in a better position this year than it was last year."He led off with a survey of the bank's comprehensive vindication in the settlement, in late 2014, of the protracted litigation over funding of loans over investments managed by agribusiness group Great Southern.The "vast majority" of borrowers with loans connected to these tax effective investments "are engaging with the bank to normalise their accounts," he said, with arrears balances falling by A$100 million over the course of this year.Hirst also applauded the home loan rate rises by major banks recently, which Bendigo has followed."They have repriced to more reasonable rates relatives to the amount of capital being applied," he said.Bendigo, however, is not likely to be raising capital."Given everything we know today, there is no imperative for us to raise capital in the absence of a large acquisition or new changes to regulation."Johansen, in his address, foreshadowed that "we should have sufficient levels of capital for some time."