Treasurer Jim Chalmers has approved two proposed mergers of mutuals – Heritage Bank with People’s Choice Credit Union, and Greater Bank with Newcastle Permanent Building Society.
The merger of Heritage and People’s Choice will create one of Australia’s largest, if not the largest, customer-owned banking organisation, with around 1800 employees, 722,000 members, 95 branches and A$22.5 billion of assets.
Heritage chief executive Peter Lock will be CEO of the merged organisation and People’s Choice CEO Steve Laidlaw will be deputy CEO.
Lock has agreed to retire 18 months after the establishment of the merged organisation and Laidlaw will be appointed CEO.
People’s Choice chair Michael Cameron will be the chair and Heritage chair Kerry Betros will be deputy chair.
Newcastle Permanent and Greater Bank are both based in the Hunter region of New South Wales. The combined assets of the two mutuals at June last year were $19.8 billion (Newcastle Permanent $11.7 billion and Greater Bank $8.1 billion) and the combined customer base around 600,000.
Newcastle Permanent chief executive Bernadette Inglis will be the CEO of the merged entity and Greater Bank CEO Scott Morgan will be deputy CEO.
Greater Bank chair Wayne Russell will chair the new entity and Newcastle Permanent chair Jeff Eather will be deputy chair.
In a statement earlier this year, Newcastle Permanent chair Wayne Russell said: “Merging will enable us to keep pace with increasing regulation and reporting, and the rapid advancements in banking technology, both of which require significant investment.”