GREATER BANK

Money’s Customer-Owned Institution of the Year is Greater Bank – this is the third consecutive year that the Hunterbased outfit has been named as the top overall performer in the customer-owned category.

First established in 1924 as the Newcastle and Hunter River Public Service Starr-Bowkett Building Cooperative Society, Greater Bank has since built out an extensive base of 270,000 customers across NSW and south-east Queensland while growing its assets under management to more than $8 billion.

In 2021, plans were also announced for a merger between Greater Bank and a fellow Hunter-based customer-owned institution, Newcastle Permanent. Though the merger is still subject to approval from the regulator APRA and the banks’ members, if successful it would lead to the creation of one of the country’s largest customer-owned banks.

“Combining our resources and financial strengths provides an unparalleled opportunity to grow and innovate, to deliver even better value for Greater Bank and Newcastle Permanent customers. This has been, and remains, the foundation for entering into such an arrangement,” says Greater Bank chairman Wayne Russell.

“Merging will also enable us to keep pace with increasing regulation and reporting, and the rapid advancements in banking technology, both of which require significant investment.”

Being customer-owned, Greater Bank says that it’s able to direct its profits back towards creating products with more competitive rates and lower fees. And given its success in the Consumer Finance Awards this year and in previous years, it appears to be delivering on these fronts.

One of the bank’s greatest strengths, and a key contributor to helping it keep hold of its Customer-Owned Institution of the Year award for another year, is in the money minder area.

Despite relatively low interest rates across the market, Greater Bank has managed to stand out from the pack by offering competitive interest rates on its savings accounts and term deposits. It is also among the top performers when it comes to credit card and business banking options, while it is also competitive in home lending and personal lending.

In second place in the category this year is Teachers Mutual Bank, one of Australia’s largest customer-owned banking institutions, which is dedicated to providing banking services for teachers and their families. Like Greater Bank, Teachers Mutual performed well across the board, but it is particularly strong on the home-lending and personal-lending fronts.

Teachers Mutual Bank has also recently branched out into the digital space with the launch of its digital-only banking service, Hiver.

In third place this year is Bank Australia. Perhaps most recognisable as one of the major players in ethical and responsible banking.