If there is a market among outsiders to support the capital needs of ME, the super funds' bank, its custodians are showing scant interest in testing it out.A recent annual ME capital call yielded A$109 million out of the $120 million asked for.A low return on equity of 7.4 per cent over the year to June 2015 may be up 90 basis points but it is no match for big bank returns.A more acceptable ROE target in a range from nine per cent features in ME's three-year budget.Underlying earnings were up 27 per cent from 2014 to A$60 million for the bank in 2015.This yield may grow, with home loan settlements up 22 per cent to $4.6 billion. Customer numbers were up nine per cent to 338,000, ME spelled out in its annual report.
The bank also has an IT core upgrade to talk up, with Temenos as the supplier.Jamie McPhee, ME CEO, was surprised at Banking Day questions on growing murmurs of a sale by an industry fund to an investor outside this super club."If you look at the last four years, the efficiency ratio, the ROE, customer numbers, there's a three year business. All those metrics are scheduled to grow in the next three years."All I can tell you is that every one has said to me they are very committed to the bank."

ME now has 29 industry fund shareholders, after two Tasmanian funds merged.The bank is now "on track to achieve better" than its budget of 7.8 per cent for ROE in 2016, its report said.