CUA grows quickly in December half

Australia's largest mutual, Credit Union Australia, yesterday reported strong growth in deposit and loan balances for the six months to December, and a 7.5 per cent increase in underlying earnings.

The Brisbane-based credit union made an underlying profit of A$21.6 million for the December half - up from $20 million in the previous corresponding period.

The deposit book grew by 17 per cent to $6 billion over the same period and loans increased by 11.5 per cent to $7.5 billion. CUA outperformed system in loans and deposits.

CUA chief financial officer Geoff Grant said the campaign being run by Abacus to raise awareness of mutuals was a factor in the stronger growth numbers.

"CUA is being recognised by more people. It is a more familiar brand and we are on more people's shopping lists," said Grant.

He said the outages suffered by the group during the Brisbane floods in January had no impact during the December half and would have an "insignificant" impact on second half performance.

CUA has revived some of the third-party distribution it was using before the financial crisis, but in a limited way. Mortgage Choice chief executive Michael Russell said CUA was on its panel but was limiting its activity.

Grant said this did not indicate any funding constraint. The group is focusing on its branch and mobile lender distribution, and was maintaining third-party distribution to service existing customers.

He said the group was able to fund ongoing growth. CUA had a capital adequacy ratio of 14.2 per cent at December 31.