The Capricornia Bank to open new Mackay branch to fill regional gap
A new “customer owned” mutual bank will thrust its doors open in Mackay aiming to fill a regional gap left behind by the big four.
A new bank will open its doors in Mackay for the first time in a bid to fill a regional gap, as reports show growing support for the customer-owned banking sector.
The Capricornia Bank announced they will open their new branch in Canelands Mackay as early as next year following a transition from its credit union days.
Chief executive Dale Grounds said with more than 100 Mackay customers already and with nearly 70 per cent of them interacting with the branch at least once a year, his company aims to bring face-to-face customer experience to locals falling behind in the digital landscape while also providing online and app services.
“It’s horses for courses,” he said.
“Expecting our customer to move ahead of the rest of the country into digital is very unfair because they could be 10 minutes out of town and can’t get internet.
“There’s quite a significant number of circumstances where the digital experience just won’t cut it.”
The Capricornia Bank emerged as a credit union in Central Queensland 65 years ago growing out of personal lending.
“The banks looked down their noses at people who wanted consumer finance, so we filled that slot for many years,” Mr Grounds said.
Decades later they expanded into small business lending and home loans before finally merging with another mutual West Fund to form a cooperative.
Unlike a private bank, a cooperative bank, or mutual, means every customer has an equal stake in the company when they open an eligible product or service.
Capricornia Bank are one of around six mutuals in the state and one 50 in the country, down from 200 in the early 2000s.
“Most of the grain and dairies were coops, but they sold out to the big corporates to get money for the farmers and grain growers,” Mr Grounds said.
While the company would operate like any other bank, Mr Grounds said the mutual model sets them apart from the big four because it cancels out conflict between shareholder and customer values.
“Our customers are our shareholders. When you do something that benefits one, it benefits both,” he said.
“Some of the decisions made by the publicly listed banks, they do things that advantage the shareholders and disadvantage the customers.
“I think we’re seeing that in the attempted acceleration of the digital move.”
According to KPMG’s annual Australian Mutuals report, more than five million Australians are members of a mutual bank with lending growing 8.2 per cent to a total of $145.8bn nationally since last year.
Some of the key priorities identified for growth in the sector were the digital transformation and maintaining profitability and sustainable growth.
But despite the rush to transition digitally, Mr Grounds believed a physical service would still have its place in regional Queensland for years to come.
“Customers of all ages and at both ends … the physical interaction with people is really important and we don’t see the digital thing taking over for 20 or 30 years,” he said.
The branch is set to open in Canelands in the first half of 2026.
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