Members of South West Credit Union have backed a merger with Beyond Bank Australia. SWCU said 92.6 of members voted in favour. Systems integration is planned for September, while all staff will be offered roles with Beyond. At the start of March, market consensus was for the cash rate to rise to a peak of around 2 per cent some time in 2023 but now the prevailing view is that the cash rate will climb to 2.5 per cent. Macquarie Securities published an update on cash rate expectations this week, showing the sharp increase in expectations over the past few weeks. Its own position is that the cash rate will peak at 1.5 per cent next year. The Australian Payments Network has appointed Rajat Jain as its new chief strategy officer. Jain is moving to AusPayNet from Deloitte, where he led the national payments practice for the past five years.  Before working at Deloitte he spent a decade at American Express, where one of his roles was head of strategy for Australia and New Zealand. Consumer lender Plenti Group has upgraded its earnings forecast for the six months to March 31. It had previously forecast cash profit of A$1 million for the half but yesterday revised the forecast to $2.2 million. It expects to report a cash profit for the 2021/22 financial year. The company also reported that it has met its loan portfolio target of $1.25 billion for the year.