Members of Heritage Bank and People’s Choice have approved a merger to create the largest mutual bank in Australia, a deal designed to relieve technology cost pressures and create a new national banking brand to capture the attention of mortgage brokers.

The combination creates the ninth-largest bank in Australia, assuming ANZ takes over Suncorp, and comes in the same month that members of Newcastle Permanent and Greater Bank, which are both based in the Hunter region of NSW, approved their merger after both deals were approved by regulators and Treasurer Jim Chalmers.