The CEO of Suncorp says the bank must change along with a shifting market.

Insurance-banking group Suncorp is Queensland’s biggest company, and recently celebrated its 100-year anniversary.

“I’d like to make sure that … it continues to be a sustainable operation,” Suncorp chief executive officer Michael Cameron told reporters this week.

“But if all we do is to compete on price, in an environment where our products and services are very commoditised, then it really does put at risk that we will join the long list of companies that disappear because they failed to embrace technology and innovation and shift the model.

“And there’s a whole long list: if you look at Borders, Blockbuster, the great Kodak story, where had they realised that they were in the business of capturing memories instead of selling film, these days they might have been called Instagram. So we just cannot continue to do what we are doing.

“Now — it’s not something that’s going to happen next year, but over time, we believe, that the sustainability of the business, in a traditional business model, is at risk as we progress forward.”

The bank has copped criticism within the investment community over its new “financial marketplace” plan.

The complicated plan has been likened to an iTunes store for financial services —a one-stop shop delivered via an app in which users can check personal finances, search for a loan, insurance, and even find pest inspection and conveyancing services.

Investors wiped nearly $1.2 billion from Suncorp’s market capitalisation in August when Mr Cameron announced the company would fast-track almost $100 million in spending to accelerate the marketplace idea.

Mr Cameron defended the spend, and said the marketplace is not just a new kind of cross-selling.

“It will provide more value for our customers, give us better top line growth and overall we’ll achieve our strategy [earlier],” he said.

Suncorp says trials of the idea it has been running at two stores are showing early success, with insurance sales more than doubling and monthly numbers for home lending up by nearly 30 per cent.