Strong capital position primes SGE for growth
SGE Credit Union has released its final annual report before rebranding as a mutual bank later this year, reporting a modest pick-up in earnings and little change in assets.SGE, which has 35,000 members, expects to relaunch as G&C Mutual Bank in December. SGE chief executive Dave Taylor told Banking Day earlier this month that the credit union name did not resonate with the young market SGE needs to attract if it is to grow."When we did some research on this a lot of the young people we surveyed told us a credit union was a type of club or something exclusive they couldn't belong to, or something that was for an older generation," Taylor said."To a lot of people it looks restricted. We want to open it up."SGE made a net profit of A$2.8 million for the year to June. Total assets were $651 million.Member equity was $75.9 million and the capital adequacy ratio was 24.2 per cent.SGE chair Julian Kennelly said his review that the group's strong capital position put it in a strong position to pursue growth opportunities.Reflecting the relative inefficiency of running a small financial institutions these days, SGE's cost-to-income ratio was 79.9 per cent.