Bank posts record profit

Heritage grew its total consolidated assets to $8.507 billion, an increase of 3.5 per cent, while total loan approvals in 2012/2013 were $1.339 billion, a decrease of 6.7 per cent on the previous year.

The bank’s retail deposits grew in the financial year by $336 million to reach $4.369 billion.

Heritage chairman Kerry Betros said the result was an indication of the bank’s strong reputation for customer service.

“As a customer-owned bank, our competitive advantage is in offering better prices and better service,” he said.

Mr Betros said the bank is continuing to focus on its service proposition by streamlining the customer experience.

“We have launched a number of internal initiatives that focus on how we can make our processes simpler, easier and quicker for our customers,” Mr Betros said.

“They include projects to remove manual steps in our approvals processes and to challenge procedures that place unnecessary administrative burdens on customers.

“It also means investing in technology improvements that make it easier for customers to deal with us, such as mobile banking apps,” he said.

Looking forward, chief executive officer John Minz said the bank would also focus on personal loans to generate new business.

Mr Minz said Heritage was carrying out an end-to-end review of its personal loans approval process to identify where it could be shortened and simplified.

“The personal loan market in Australia is substantial, with about $135 billion in loan balances at the moment,” Mr Minz said.

“Our share of that market is currently very small. One reason is that we have not done enough to modernise and simplify our approvals process, and make it easier for customers to do business with us,” he said.