Suncorp Bank will beat its June 30 target for reducing the loan balance in its non-core bank. The bank's chief executive, David Foster, told analysts at a briefing yesterday that the non-core portfolio would be below the A$2.7 billion it has set as a June 30 balance earlier in the year.In the wake of the global financial crisis, Suncorp Bank put $18 billion of impaired commercial and property loans into a run-off portfolio, in 2009. At its December half-year balance date last year, the value of loans still in the non-core bank was $3.4 billion.Foster said the closure of the non-core bank was within sight. The non-core bank has been a drag on Suncorp's banking activities; while the core bank made a profit of $144 million in the December half, the non-core bank lost $140 million.Foster had other good news to share. The bank has had 20 per cent growth in customer numbers over the past three years (it has just over one million customers).And over the same period it has had 35 per cent growth in what it calls "complete customers" - customers with three or more Suncorp products.The bank has also grown its mortgage and deposit books above system.Foster said the bank's positioning in the market is to be "big enough and small enough" - big enough to compete with majors but small enough to have the service standards that customers like.The bank's size and A+ credit rating give it access to a range of funding sources that is not very different from the big banks. It is the only non-major to have issued a covered bond.Foster said the bank had recently upgraded its banking platform to include a customer relationship management system, which has helped with customer retention and cross-sell.The metrics he is working to include a sustainable growth rate for the bank of seven to 10 per cent a year; a net interest margin of between 175 and 185 basis points; a ratio of deposits to loans of 60 to 70 per cent; a cost-to-income ratio of below 50 per cent; and a return on core equity of 12 to 15 per cent.