If there is a future in Australian banking, the quest for credibility among the tail of lesser banks suggests there might be.Mutual banks for many years eschewed individual credit ratings.But as the Cuscal 'self-help' banking model faded away, the largest credit unions worked out they could afford and use a rating. A dozen have now done so.Like them or loathe them, credit ratings from a recognised name are a gateway to capital.Credit unions made their entry at the bottom of the range, BBB or nearby.Fitch Ratings remind us several congregate at BBB+.And now we have QT Mutual lifted to a much more competitive position, relative to its peers, up to a status shared with Credit Union Australia.