Banking with purpose
Our purpose – helping all Australians to own their own home – has never been more relevant than it is today.
As Australia’s largest customer-owned bank, that purpose is reflected in everything we do. It helps direct the way we work to support our customers, how we help the communities we live and work in, and guides the investments we make in our people, products and services.
Our strong home loan and customer growth over the last year reflects the necessity of that purpose. More Australians are choosing us as a vibrant alternative to the big banks. During the year to 30 June, we continued to see strong growth in new customers and are now helping more than 382,000 active customers on the journey towards owning their own home and achieving their savings and financial goals.
Helping with home ownership
For many Australians, the struggle to own a home is the greatest single economic challenge that they will face in their lifetime.
Our support is clear. In the 2022 financial year, we provided a record $5 billion in new loans, a 58 per cent increase on the previous year. We helped more than 20,500 customers to buy a home or refinance an existing home, and we increased our lending by 50 per cent to first home buyers.
Our growth in the first homebuyer segment was boosted by our ongoing support for the Government-backed Home Guarantee Scheme. In the past year, we helped more than 2,200 first homebuyers or single parents to buy their home using the scheme, taking the total to over 4,100 homebuyers since its introduction.
We’re helping our increasing customer base with better technology that offers faster response times. The investment we made this year in our systems is supporting record numbers of home loan applications and is designed to enable our growth for years to come. Our successful partnerships are enabling faster decisions for home loan applications – today almost half of our home loan applicants receive a decision in under two days.
Nationally, more Australians are turning to mortgage brokers to help with their home loans. To enable more customers to get a home loan where and how they choose, we have doubled our network to reach 5,100 brokers.
Customer deposits grew by 6 per cent to $11.9 billion, thanks to competitive products like our Goal Saver and Home Saver accounts, and our investment in clever online savings tools like The Boost and The Vault.
Responsible banking
The number of people reaching out to us for financial assistance has doubled since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the past year we approved over $200 million worth of loans qualifying for financial assistance, with COVID-19 and natural disaster claims making up around a third of the overall amount. We also created 20,000 individual payment plans to help our customers with arrears.
We have further embraced our responsibilities towards the environment and the communities that we support. Following on from becoming carbon neutral in the 2021 financial year, this year we also pledged to reach net zero by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement. We also launched our first Reconciliation Action Plan, which sets out the roadmap for our reconciliation journey with First Nations peoples.
Remaining customer-focused
Satisfaction remains high among our customers. Our net promoter score - a measure of our customers’ likelihood to recommend us – ended the year around three times higher than any of the big four banks. We were also recognised for the outstanding value we provide to customers, being named Canstar’s Customer-Owned Bank of the Year, as well as receiving nine awards for the strength of our service, deposit and transaction products. Canstar research1 identifies that our home loan customers made an estimated average saving of $1,182 during the year to June 2022 by having their loan with us, rather than one of the big four banks.
Despite the pandemic and turbulent financial environment, engagement among team members reached an all-time high, with Great Southern Bank sitting just outside the top 25 per cent of organisations globally, as measured by Gallup.
In our first full year as the rebranded Great Southern Bank, the customer and public response has been positive. We’re building strong emotional connections with Australians, with brand awareness more than doubling in the space of a year. The average age of new customers has decreased to 27 years, as we attract a new generation to customer-owned banking.
The bank, or authorised deposit taking institution (ADI), recorded a $140.1 million net profit after tax (Group $70.5 million net profit after tax), including the sale of CUA Health to member-owned HBF during the year. The move allowed us to strengthen the focus on our banking business, with the net proceeds to provide funds for growth opportunities and to partner with like-minded organisations. This includes investing in fintech Constantinople to help us support small to medium sized enterprises – the same businesses that are operated by or employ many of our home loan customers.
Our financial performance was influenced by a number of headwinds and the delivery of large-scale projects pivotal to our future as a bank. Profit margins contracted across the industry, while we saw significant increases in regulatory and compliance costs, particularly related to Open Banking, anti-money laundering and cyber security. We also implemented our new home loan origination system, and partnered to migrate key technology platforms to the cloud.
A bright future
Great Southern Bank is well positioned for an exciting future that we want to share with more Australians.
Rebranding as a bank is broadening our appeal and helping attract new generations to customer-owned banking, while we serve our growing customer base with technology of increasing sophistication and capability.
A lot has been achieved over the last year, but there is more to do. We remain dedicated to helping all Australians own their own home and, where it’s right for our customers, to forging new partnerships with organisations that share our values. Ultimately, we are honouring the principles we were founded on 76 years ago – to be a responsible bank, and to make a positive impact on our customers, our people and the environment.
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| Nigel Ampherlaw | Paul Lewis |
| Great Southern Bank Chairman | CEO and Managing Director |
1Source: CANSTAR, Great Southern Bank - home loan cost comparison to major banks, August 2022