Orange Credit Union's newest variable home loan product is 156 basis points (bp) below the average variable home loan rate for owner occupiers, according to Mozo’s database.
People power: The changing face of customer-owned lenders
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The mutuals have undergone a huge amount of change in the past year, with lenders merging, new tech being released, and brokers highly rating their experiences with them.
In December 2020, as Australia was closing off one of the most disruptive years on record, the Customer Owned Banking Association was holding its annual conference. It was here when the deputy chair of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), John Lonsdale, warned that change may need to come in the mutual bank space in order for the sector to survive.
Noting that the coronavirus pandemic had resulted in a (somewhat short-lived) economic downturn and increased the need for lenders to have a digital offering, Mr Lonsdale suggested that a large number of the small banks – and not only mutuals – have business models that were “challenged” in the current environment.
Financial literacy 2.0
Your Financial Wellness has emerged as a leader in the provision of financial literacy and budget planning tools to the mutual banking sector, with eight organisations now using its services.
The latest to sign up is Teachers Mutual Bank, which announced earlier this month that it will use Your Financial Wellness services as a “core component of its financial wellness initiatives”.
Other financial institutions using its services include MyState Bank, MOVE Bank, Illawarra Credit Union, Goulburn Murray Credit Union, Orange Credit Union and Northern Inland Credit Union.
Your Financial Wellness chief executive Alexander Hassall said the company provides a platform that allows financial institutions to explain financial issues to their customers.