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Paul Moses, head of broker experience at Heritage Bank, shares how its approved merger with People’s Choice Credit Union will deliver more for members
It was fantastic to see the strong endorsement from the members of both Heritage Bank and People’s Choice Credit Union for our proposed merger. The confirmed ‘yes’ vote from members marks the start of an exciting journey together as a positive new force in the Australian banking sector as a strong customer-owned alternative to the big banks.
Importantly, the broker channel will continue to play a key role in our operations and we will be working closely with our aggregator and broker partners as we progress with the merger integration.
All things going to plan, we will officially come together as one organisation from 1 March 2023 following final regulatory approval. While we will become one entity on that date, we will continue to operate under the brands of both Heritage and People’s Choice for an interim period while we begin the integration process.
A wealth of opportunity lies ahead, with the merger expected to deliver significant member benefits, including access to more branches, better products and services, and contemporary, secure banking technology. We’re looking forward to taking our broker and aggregator partners along on this exciting journey with us.
Supported by the strong partnerships we’ve built within the industry, Heritage’s broker channel achieved some fantastic outcomes in the 2021/22 financial year, including a record year in funded loans of $1.8 billion, 34 per cent higher than the prior year. Heritage brokers also achieved a 14 per cent annual growth, surpassing market growth over the same period of 9.8 per cent (APRA Banking Statistics, July 2022).
Investing in our people and processes continues to be high priority for us, and growing our loans assessment and priority broker teams has increased our capacity within lending operations and resulted in faster turnaround times and better experiences for brokers and their clients. Coming into the FY22/23, Heritage has maintained its service-level agreements through continued strong application volumes.
We’ve also introduced service enhancements including automated broker status change updates for home loan applications and more recently FASTRefi® in November 2022. This is just the tip of the iceberg and we have many other projects in the pipeline over the next six months to create efficiencies in the application to settlement process.
When the merger with People’s Choice comes into effect on 1 March 2023, there won’t be any immediate changes to our processes and services. It will business as usual as we continue operating as two separate brands for an initial period. As we progress with the merger integration, if any changes are to occur, we will communicate with our broker partners in advance.
Looking ahead to the new year, we’re excited to be a working alongside our broker partners as we build and grow a new national mutual banking proposition that will create a positive new force in the Australian banking sector.
Paul Moses
Head of broker experience Heritage Bank
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