Military moves on banks

Australian Military Bank will be the new name of Australian Defence Credit Union.

ADCU is the latest credit union to make the jump to mutual bank status.

"This needs to be more than a name change," John Ford, CEO of the bank, told Banking Day.

The message is in the name: "We do banking, we are a bank," Ford said.

"We stayed with something intuitive on who we serve and what we do."

The Board of ADCU is recommending members vote in favour of the change at the Annual General Meeting in October. If approved, Australian Military Bank will assume mutual bank status from December 1.

Research among its target market in Defence showed "the new brand is strong and patriotic. So it ticked all the boxes," Ford said.

Defence personnel and families make up 80 per cent of the Australian Military Bank customer base, so this mutual bank is one -like the Teachers banks - centred on a close industry bond.

The balance sheet at ADCU is growing above system - "probably just short of double digit this year," Ford said.