Financial performance proves Heritage and People’s Choice merger a smart choice

A leading mutual bank has just announced its financial results since its merger. See the results here.

Leading bank, Heritage and People’s Choice, has revealed their financial performance has been nothing short of positive for the financial year ending June 30, 2023.

Heritage and People’s Choice chief executive Peter Lock said the newly combined organisation has achieved excellent results and avoided potential issues a merger process can pose.

The bank recorded a net Profit after tax of $32.1m, and total assets of $23.3bn, a 2.6 per cent increase on the combined balances of Hertiage Bank and People’s Choice at June 30 2022.

The outstanding performance from the bank shows the profit result was achieved despite an additional $24.4m of expenses incurred during the first year of the merger.

Heritage Bank and People’s Choice merged on March 1 of this year.

“We’re at the early stages of our merger but our achievements to this point have met all of our expectations,” Mr Lock said.

“We’ve not only grown our membership, lending, deposits and assets, but we’ve also maintained high levels of customer satisfaction built a strong values-based employee culture and delivered a solid profit despite the costs of integration.”

Heritage and People's Choice chairman Michael Cameron and chief executive Peter Lock.

Mr Lock said the bank’s financial performance is quite incredible and speaks to the appeal that a financial institution true to its values has in the industry.

“These results prove that a bank driven by purpose, not profit, can be just as competitive and strong, while maintaining a focus on the customer,” Mr Lock said.

The next phase for the bank driven to “make Australian banking better” was to change into a single new brand over the next few months.

“Our aspiration is to become Australia’s iconic purpose-driven financial institution that delivers positive change through banking,” Mr Lock said.

“Announcing a new name and brand will be a major step forward in that process.

“Our 2022/23 results show we can confidently move ahead to create something truly special in the Australian banking sector.”

The mutual bank announced Toowoomba would be home to the head office on April 26 of this year, with the intention of solidifying the bank’s commitment to Toowoomba.

The multimillion-dollar project is expected to begin construction in 2024.