Mark Williams , CEO, The Mutual Bank
The Mutual Bank, based in Maitland, is looking for payoffs from its long-term investments and has revised short-term thinking on provisions.
The result for The Mutual in FY2024 was more than a halving in net profit to $2.4 million from a profit of $5.8 million in the year to June 2023.
Mark Williams, the bank’s still pretty new CEO, said the bank had adopted “a focus on sustainable growth; where growth in the loan book, growth in the deposit book, maintaining net interest margin and maintaining capital adequacy are considered of equal importance.”
Williams pointed to “further strengthening the balance sheet against future economic shocks”, which has led to a trebling in provisions to $900,000,a alongside “making the requisite investments into long-term business resilience.”
Over FY2024 the Mutual achieved loan growth of 4.7 per cent, in line with system and
growth in member deposits of 5 per cent, which was slightly above system growth
During the year, The Mutual Bank implemented a Digital Loan Origination Platform, “continued strengthening of information and cyber security” and developed a comprehensive Digital and Technology Strategy and Information and Cyber Security Strategy and roadmap of initiatives that will support the business
“I believe an incredibly important principle in operating a highly regulated business is to take a long-term view and ensure that the right investments are made in long-term business resilience” Williams told Banking Day.
“Failing to make those investments to achieve a one-year profit outcome is imprudent and not in the best interests of our members.
“The Mutual Bank is already seeing the benefits of these investments with a strong first quarter with an annualised growth rate in the loan portfolio exceeding 10 per cent, profitability in line with our target and capital adequacy remaining stable.”