Bank of Us loan book grows at 8 times system

John Kavanagh

The first six months of the 2020/21 financial year have delivered strong results for Tasmania's customer-owned Bank of Us, well above the mutual banking sector's average performance.

Highlights from yesterday's half-year profit announcement by the mutual bank's CEO, Paul Ranson, included:

• loan approvals of A$183 million;
• loan book growth of $52 million to $973 million, implying an annualised growth rate of 12 per cent; and
• COVID-19 loan deferrals dropping to 0 per cent, while overall loan arrears remain at a "low" 0.3 per cent, after touching 4 per cent of the loan book.

Ranson said his bank increased its home loan growth to 4.38 per cent in 2Q, compared to the customer owned banking sector's 1.32 per cent and system growth of 0.57 per cent.

This led him to observe: "The latest APRA data shows that home loan growth for the entire customer owned banking sector has more than doubled the average increase for the banking system for the latest quarter."

Bank of Us, with its HQ in Launceston, has more than 31,000 customers, eight retail stores across the state, and $1.2 billion in assets. The entity emerged in its current iteration in 2017 after a name change from B&E, an echo of the bank's 150-year presence in the state.