Great Southern Bank to help customers cut emissions, energy bills with personal loans launch
10 August 2023
Customer-owned bank Great Southern Bank is launching two new loans designed to help customers reduce their energy costs at home, cut emissions and ease the transition to electric and hybrid vehicles.
An unsecured personal loan is available to purchase household solar panels, home batteries, hot water heat pumps and solar hot water systems, while a secured car loan is available to purchase qualifying electric and hybrid vehicles. Approved loans will benefit from a lower interest rate than other types of personal loans offered by the bank.
Megan Keleher, Chief Customer Officer at Great Southern Bank, said:
“Over 60% of borrowers now consider environmental sustainability to be a priority in their financial decisions*.
“But they also believe it shouldn’t cost the earth, and they’re right – we’ve set out to offer competitive loans that give customers a path to lower the emissions from their homes and cars. Through the purchase of things like solar panels and solar hot water systems there’s also a way for many Australians to significantly cut their energy costs.”
Qualifying criteria for the loans include, but are not limited to, the size of the solar and battery systems, the professional accreditation of any retailers or installers, and the type and model of any electric or hybrid vehicle.
The launch of the loans builds on a number of the bank’s recent activities, including:
- Pledging to reach net zero emissions by 2040 which is ten years earlier than the target date in the Paris Agreement and establishing our plan for achieving this, our 2022-24 Climate Action Plan, which was developed with leading climate change advisory firm Ndevr Environmental
- Becoming carbon neutral certified under the Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard
- Becoming the first customer-owned bank to publish a Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) report, which includes a level of disclosure more commonly found with the world’s biggest financial institutions.
*2022 RFIGlobal Innovate and Grow Report
About Great Southern Bank
For over 75 years, we’ve been putting our customers first, and today we look after the financial needs of more than 387,000 Australians. We have changed our name from CUA to Great Southern Bank but we remain customer owned and firmly focused on helping all Australians own their own homes.
Media contact:
Michael O’Toole
Manager, Corporate Communications