Heritage cherry picking loans

Heritage, Australia's largest building society, finished the financial year with a record $2 billion in new loan approvals and a net profit of $19.6 million in after tax profit, a rise of 11 per cent on last year.

The group's loan balances are growing at around little better than two thirds as fast as the wider market.

Heritage chief executive John Minz said Heritage continued to avoid low doc and no documentation lending.

"We are quite happy to hit record loan approvals of $2 billion, growing the book the way we have, you can call it cherry picking, but we are happy with clientele that do not include low doc and no doc loans.

"We have not had to dilute our credit standards to achieve the level of growth that we think is appropriate for the society as a mutual".

Heritage has invested in its branch network, which is now 50 per cent larger than three years ago with 59 locations.

The society reported a 10.8 per cent increase in total consolidated assets to $6.4 billion, with Minz adding, "Do you want to be hitting system growth or growth you think is appropriate for the organisation, which operates on a range of values, one of which is prudence."