Two major teaching credit unions form alliance

Two of Australia’s strongest credit unions have announced they are forming an alliance to deliver increased benefits to their respective members.

The $1.3 billion Victoria Teachers Credit Union and the $3.1 billion multi-state Teachers Credit Union (headquartered in NSW) have begun working together on initiatives to provide added value for members.

William Wolke, CEO of Victoria Teachers Credit Union is a strong advocate for credit unions working together.

“An advantage of being smaller than the banks, is that credit unions can frequently work together on a range of initiatives that not only support the individual organisation and their members, but also the industry itself.”

“This alliance provides scale benefits, while still allowing both organisations to operate independently.”

Steve James, CEO of Teachers Credit Union believes that the alliance makes good strategic sense.

“Both organisations have a common objective of serving the education community, have a similar culture and IT platforms, yet operate in discrete geographic areas. Forming this alliance will give us the best of both worlds.”

“Both credit unions will remain independent while at the same time leveraging the alliance to provide an even better range of benefits to members, including new products, services and access channels.”

William Wolke believes the cooperative work also has strong advantages from a regulatory and compliance perspective.

“The cost of compliance within financial services has steadily been increasing over recent years. By working together on these projects, we can share costs and resources to effectively implement solutions for each of our independent organisations.”
 
Some of the key areas of focus include new products and services, technology, Treasury, liquidity management, R & D, and wealth creation and management.

Both credit unions are excited at the prospect of being able to deliver enhanced benefits to their members, having both recently announced excellent financial results in the financial year ended 30 June.

Victoria Teachers Credit Union had $1.3 billion in total assets and over 83,000 members at 30 June 2010. Total deposits were $1.1 billion and total loans $990 million. Net profit after tax was $8.6 million with a return on average assets of 0.73%.

At 30 June 2010, Teachers Credit union reached total assets of $3.1 billion, with net profit after tax of $24.7 million. Return on average assets was 0.82% with total deposits $2.7 billion and total loans $2.4billion. Membership was just under 156,000.

“Working cooperatively is standard practice in the mutual industry, with many credit unions and building societies working within alliances” said Steve James. “Consistent with mutual principles, the benefits achieved through this alliance are channelled into delivering even better products and services to members.”

Media contact:

Gillian Tatt, Senior PR Officer, Teachers Credit Union ph: 0448 259 942.