Teachers Mutual Bank eyes future growth

01 October 2015

Teachers Mutual Bank has achieved strong profit growth in the 2015 financial year, driven by solid growth in residential lending. According to the mutual lender’s full-year results released yesterday, Teachers Mutual Bank, a BCCM member, recorded home loan lending growth of 12.3% in the year to June 2015, to $3.8 billion. Net profit after tax was up 15.4% from the 2014 financial year, to $29.8 million.

Steve James, CEO of Teachers Mutual Bank said broker-generated loans contributed significantly to the robust growth in its mortgage book.

“We have only been dealing through the broker channel for about 18 months and so we have been building up the number of accredited brokers. We are on the panel of nine aggregators now and we have about 1,200 individual brokers,” he said.

Mr James also revealed plans to grow its broker network by more than 60% with the CEO of the mutual lender stating he “…would be very happy to see 2,000 brokers accredited with Teacher’s Mutual Bank by the end of the 2016 financial year.”

It comes after credit ratings agency Moody’s last month forecast a “challenging operating environment” for mutuals in the next 12-18 months as “economic growth slows while competitive pressures remain high.” However Mr James is confident about the future.

“If you look at all the larger mutual banks, including Teachers Mutual Bank, they are all quite well and growing their loan books. If you are growing your loan book at 12.3% then you are doing pretty well against the four major banks.

“Certainly, I believe our volumes would be similar in the next 12 months and I believe the mutual movement has got a strong focus on growth for the next 12 months”, he concluded.