Hunter mutuals merge

Phoenix Credit Union plans to merge with Maitland Mutual Building Society, a rare merger of a credit union with a building society.

The small, Newcastle-based credit union serves the staff and families of OneSteel (formerly Tubemakers) and has assets of only $55 million or so and a single branch in the city's heavy industrial precinct.

Maitland Mutual, a long-established deposit taking business in the Hunter Valley, will have assets of around $500 million following the merger.