Big Sky members support Lifeplan merger

Big Sky Credit Union members yesterday voted in support of a proposal to merge with the Lifeplan Australia Building Society.

Subject to regulatory approval, Big Sky's business will transfer to Lifeplan, which is a subsidiary of the health insurance, funds management and retirement living group, Australian Unity.

The merged entity will be called Big Sky Building Society. Tony Ryan, the chief executive of Big Sky Credit Union, will be chief executive of the new business.

Big Sky, which is based in Melbourne and has a number of branches in mining communities, brings 31,000 members to the table.

Lifeplan, which is based in Adelaide, has 3000 members.

The new business will have A$650 million in gross assets.

Ryan said the big benefit of the merger for Big Sky's members was becoming part of Australian Unity, which has 285,000 members.

Ryan said: "Australian Unity wants to offer a banking relationship to those people.

"And it has scale in areas such as marketing and technology that we can draw on to grow the business."