.jpg)
A new bank brand for those working in the health sector has been announced to launch next year.
Under Teachers Mutual Bank Limited, the new Health Professionals Bank will target the 1.5million strong workers in the health sector from February 2019.
It joins Teachers Mutual Bank, UniBank and Firefighters Mutual Bank as the group provides finance options for various industries.
CEO of Teachers Mutual Bank, Steve James, said the whole team was excited about the launch.
He added, “Early this year we did a study of affordability for key workers in Sydney and we found that a lot of key workers were being driven out of the market, they just couldn’t afford it. We saw a need for the key workers in the health area, the nurses the people in the hospitals.
“So we saw we could bring a mutual bank that’s fair and ethical with good interest rates and we could attract them and of course using the third party channel or the broker channel we hope to be able to reach them.
“The benefit for them is it’s a mutual bank, so we don’t have shareholders to pay as a mutual you are the shareholder. All the benefit of a mutual goes back into lower interest rates.
“They'll have every service that our TMB and other brands have from February, so they’ll be able to take advantage of good savings accounts and a whole range of different offers, car buying services, and travel services. We'll be very competitive in this market.”
The announcement comes alongside the Teachers Mutual Bank Limited financial results. It saw a strong year with a 14% increase in net profit to $31.8million.
Its home loan performance for both owner occupier and investor loans via first and third-party channels grew by more than 10% to $5.4billion.
James said, “The home loan growth for us has definitely been in the broker channel, it’s been sensational for us in the last 12 months or so. It's been the key to our success. We have got 4,200 brokers we deal with across Australia and hopefully they’ll be able to reach out for our new bank.”
Of the bank’s three existing brands UniBank saw the highest growth, consistent with the bank’s strategic plan for that brand.
Looking ahead to 2019, the group is planning to invest in robotic process automation (RPA).
James said, “We are introducing process automation through our back office as we aim to boost productivity and deliver cost savings. We have allocated a substantial budget to introduce more AI process and automation throughout the back office.”
