Christine Yates, CEO Retail, Australian Unity
Mutual financial services group Australian Unity has elected to prop up its banking division, topping up the bank’s capital by A$4.8 million during the 2023 financial year.
Australian Unity Bank incurred a loss of $1.5 million over the year to June 2023, from a net profit of $1.0 million in FY2022.
An 18 per cent blowout in costs to $27.4 million was the main driver of this loss.
“The increase was mainly driven by investment in human resources and infrastructure, essential to the company’s long-term growth and efficiency” directors wrote in the 2023 annual report.
Unexplained losses on investments were a lesser factor, though these losses fell 84 per cent over the year.
Australian Unity has owned a banking arm for many years and struggled to generate much value. It first entered the industry via Lifeplan Building Society and acquired Big Sky Credit Union (formerly BHP Credit Union) in 2012.
In a climate of rising interest rates, footings growth was hard to come by last year.
Receivables increased by 2.7 per cent to $1.16 billion while deposit growth was 3.6 per cent to $1.07 billion.
During the year the bank repaid a majority of its Term Funding Facility of $44 million to the Reserve Bank.
Australian Unity Bank has around 26,000 customers.