The profitability of Australia's newest bank, Goldfields Money, has been plagued by a takeover battle for control of the company between two established players. The mutual bank's 2017/18 results, released yesterday along with a trading update, show it made a statutory loss after tax of A$406,699 (down from $966,456 in FY17) and an underlying profit after tax of $532,166 (compared to a $629,680 loss in FY17). The loss came despite Goldfields' settling a record $46 million in loans, thanks largely to the commissioning of a Temenos digital banking system - the first of its kind in the Australian market. Transaction costs incurred in a takeover battle between long-established non-bank mortgage originator and distributor Firstmac - rebuffed by Goldfields - and a proposed merger with mortgage broker and aggregator Finsure figure strongly. According to a report in the West Australian, this figure was $938,000 in FY18, and is up to around $2.5 million overall.                This ongoing battle for Goldfields, which started in 2017 with the announcement of a merger between the company and Finsure, has been an intriguing contest. Kim Cannon's Firstmac lobbed an offer valuing Goldfields Money at $1.12 a share later raised to $1.27, which has since lapsed."After being rebuffed on its initial offers and then despite selling a reasonable share of its GMY holding in June 2018, Firstmac's interest in GMY appears to remain alive," wrote Oliver Stevens, an analyst with Hartleys in a note to clients earlier this monthFor its part, GMY would  appear  to  have  little  interest  in  engaging  with  Firstmac  and  remains focused on  completion  of the Finsure transaction, the ongoing delays to which raise questions of their own, Stevens suggested.If the Finsure side of the deal does go ahead, it will require $15 million to $20 million in extra regulatory capital.The bank maintained its net interest margin at 1.86, after adjusting for deposits used to fund ATMs in convenience stores.