I am pleased to share with you some exciting news about mecu’s future.
The opportunity provided by banking reform
Over the past few months we have been exploring the opportunity created by the Australian Government’s announcement that it wishes to see the mutual banking sector provide more competition to the country’s major banks. In particular, the Government has invited a small number of Australia’s largest credit unions and building societies to apply to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to use the restricted term ‘bank’ in their name.
On learning of the Government’s position mecu conducted a series of focus groups across the country to help us understand exactly what our members thought about this opportunity.
mecu members told us that they consider mecu to be ‘my bank’ and they see themselves to be customers as well as owners of mecu. However they also said they didn’t want mecu to become a large bank motivated like other banks to make big profits at the expense of their customers, personal service or a more responsible approach to banking.
We heard that people are concerned and frustrated about the impersonal and inflexible way large banks can treat their customers.
Our research also revealed that mecu customers believe an opportunity does exist to create a new kind of customer owned bank and that mecu is well positioned to offer a better and more responsible approach to banking. They also understand how important it is for mecu’s future prosperity that we attract a new generation of people who can offset the change in demand for services that will occur, as existing mecu customers grow older.
These mecu members told us that as long as we stay true to our cooperative values and philosophy and continue to operate mecu in ways which truly reflect what’s important to our customers then calling mecu a customer owned bank should help us become more appealing to other people who are looking for a better way to bank.
Customer owned banking
With this clear message in hand we approached APRA with the view to having it assess our application to call mecu a customer owned bank. We are pleased to now advise that this application has been approved.
This means that from 1 September, you will notice a slight difference in the way we talk about mecu. We shall adopt the new business name ‘bankmecu’. Our company name remains mecu Limited. We will also use the term customer owned bank to describe ourselves. Our cooperative ownership, values, products, personal customer service and responsible approach to banking will not change.
Being a customer owned bank accountable to its customers who are also our owners is a claim no publicly listed bank can ever make.
Come along to a customer forum
In coming weeks mecu will host a number of customer forums around Australia. These forums will offer us an opportunity to share some of our thoughts with you about the exciting future for bankmecu. We’d like to hear from you about your thoughts on how we can continue to be accountable to our customers. We’ll also share details about mecu’s strong performance over the last 12 months as a result of the support we receive from our customers.
Details of the customer forum dates and locations can be found by clicking the 'customer forums' link to the right.
We remain strongly committed to offering you a better and more responsible approach to banking. You are invited to join us in this next stage of our long and proud history as we call ourselves bankmecu, a customer owned bank.
If you have any questions about this new opportunity for mecu and its customers please email mail@mecu.com.au.
Phylip Doughty
CEO