Home Building Society said it recorded annualised growth in loans of 11 per cent during the December 2006 half and annualised growth in deposits of 22 per cent. The rate of growth in loans is shy of the national average for credit growth and also below average for credit growth in Western Australia.Greg Wall, managing director of the expanded Home, said of the asset growth that "eleven per cent lending growth is ok in the circumstances. Typically in financial services mergers I've seen it's not uncommon for growth to stall or go backwards. It's not strong; its reasonable growth for the first six months."When you are putting two banking systems together half your staff have to be retrained and quite often people don't like change."Wall said the level of customer attrition from the merger was minimal, and really non-existent taking into account the level of asset growth and strong growth in deposits.Home yesterday reported an underlying profit after tax of $10.1 million and a net profit of $7.2 million for the half year. The group reported assets under management of $2.3 billion.Wall said the integration of StateWest Credit Society and Home was largely complete and that "synergy benefits [would] become evident in the second half of the 2007 financial year and through the 2008 financial year".He said Home expected to lodge its application for a banking licence with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority by the end of March and anticipated a response to the application by July or August.One impediment is the need to resolve a dispute with the WA government over the payment of any stamp duties over the transfer of business from StateWest Credit Society to Home Building Society. For the time being the first continues to trade as a separate deposit-taking entity, for legal purposes, and as a subsidiary of the second.