Credit Union Australia has become the fourth of several customer owned banks that, in the space of a week, have all taken steps to raise equity capital without affecting their mutual status.At their annual general meeting on Wednesday, 92 per cent of CUA's members voted in support of a resolution that will allow capital to be raised via a mutual capital instrument, in line with changes to the Corporations Law made in April this year.In making the necessary amendments to its constitution, CUA joins Australian Unity, Heritage Bank and Australian Military Bank, who made these changes last week"This member vote removes a significant competition barrier which has restricted our access to capital," said Nigel Ampherlaw, CUA chairman. "CUA is now positioned to compete more effectively in the financial services market."Industry peak body, the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals, which had lobbied for the changes since 2015, said members like CUA will be better able to take on the larger listed banks without compromising their mutual ownership.  The BCCM noted that prior to the changes, bringing external investment capital into mutuals had previously triggered waves of demutualisation. The rules in question, known as the Treasury Laws Amendment (Mutual Reforms) Bill 2019, implemented these key reforms:•    defining a mutual entity;•    reforming the demutualisation rules to only be triggered in an intended demutualisation; and•    creating a specific Mutual Capital Instrument.