CUA: Committed to the mutual model

10 April 2014

Credit Union Australia’s CEO Chris Whitehead has today praised the customer owned banking model, telling Australian Banking + Finance that CUA is committed to its mutual structure.

Credit Union Australia (CUA) believes the mutual business model is very sound and appeals to people’s increasing empathy with small business and the community.

With assets under management of $10 billion, CUA is Australia’s largest mutual. Based in Brisbane its branch network covers the eastern seaboard, as well as Perth, but it has customers across Australia through brokers and Australia Post.

Chris Whitehead, who has headed CUA for over four years, developed empathy for mutuals after doing a lot of work with the UK’s building society sector in the 1980s. It faced a similar set of challenges to those Australia’s mutuals currently face.

Under the mutual model, “there is less of that constant sense of trade-off between shareholders and customers,” said Whitehead. “That genuine focus on customers makes it a simple and effective business model.”

Source:  Australian Banking + Finance, The advantage is mutual: CUA, April 10