Felicity Laczina (L), COO The Mutual Bank and Matthew Dunnill, chief member officer
Seemingly late to chase the digital wave in mortgage origination, The Mutual Bank, from Maitland, has partnered with a fancied fintech to plug this gap.
The Mutual Bank’s digital lending channel service provider, Nimo Industries, recently won a 2024 FinTech award for Excellence in Consumer Lending.
Mark Williams, The Mutual’s CEO, told Banking Day yesterday the new digital loan platform, that has just been rolled out, “is part of our strategy of providing our members choice of channel and making our loans more accessible to a wider audience across Australia."
Williams insisted the absence of this lending channel, before now, was no brake on the bank’s ability to compete or keep up with the market.
“The Mutual Bank remains focused on sustainable loan growth, and not simply ‘growth for growth sakes’” Williams said.
He said “early indications of results for the 2024 full year are showing that our growth is likely to be slightly above system growth (currently running at 4.5 per cent), with capital adequacy increasing from 15.4 per cent at June 2023 to approximately 16.3 per cent at June 2024.”
The net interest margin, Williams said, was increasing from 2.39 per cent in 2023, to around 2.50 per cent for the year ended June 2024 – an outcome that may well prove an outlier in the mutual banking sector this year.
He added that “while The Mutual Bank’s credit quality remains exceptional, given the current uncertain economic environment, The Mutual is likely to consider increasing its provision for doubtful debts as at June 2024 from its historic level of $300,000.
“The 2023/24 year has been a significant year of investment for The Mutual Bank with a range of investments made to continue to strengthen long-term business resilience.
“These investments have included material investments in IT infrastructure, IT strategy, product governance and management and risk management capabilities that will position us for the future” Williams said.