Firefighters Credit Co-operative and Teachers Mutual Bank have announced plans to merge. Pending APRA’s sign-off, a vote is likely to go to members in the first quarter of next year.

In 2016, Fire Brigade Employees Credit Union (which was New South Wales based) merged with Teachers and was re-branded Firefighters Mutual Bank. Firefighters Credit Co-op (which is Victorian based) will join the Firefighters Mutual Bank division.

Firefighters Credit Co-operative is a member owned credit union with 3100 members and around A$63 million in assets.

Firefighters Mutual Bank general manager Jim O’Connell said Fire Brigade Employees Credit Union had around 7000 members when it merged with Teachers.

O’Connell said: “It took a little time to settle it in but since then it has been terrific. We have grown our loan book by about 60 per cent over three years and added another 1500 members.

“The expanded product range we can offer makes a big difference. Before 2016 we did not offer fixed rate home loans and we had trouble keeping up with the technology.

“Our younger members want services like Apple Pay.”

Firefighters Mutual Bank and Firefighters Credit Co-operative are both bonded financial institutions, with membership open to firefighters, emergency services workers and their families. O’Connell said the two bonds were basically the same.

Teachers Mutual Bank Ltd operates four divisions: Teachers Mutual Bank, Firefighters Mutual Bank, UniBank and Health Professional Bank. It has 210,000 members and $8 billion of assets.