Customer-owned bank CUA has announced a 10.7% increase in its net profit after tax, driven by a record amount of new home loan settlements.
Australia’s largest customer-owned lender issued a record of $3.35 billion in new loans during the 12 months to 30 June 2015, according to the lender’s full year results released yesterday. This is up almost 55% compared to loans settled in the previous year.
The broker channel accounted for $1.3 billion of new home loans settled, just under 40% of all residential housing loans issued for the year.
“Our home loan performance was a real highlight, with CUA achieving home loan balance growth of almost 2.5 times system for the year, driven primarily by growth in owner occupier housing finance,” CUA chief executive officer, Rob Goudswaard said.
But despite the significant growth in CUA’s loan book, its impairment charges fell substantially – from $5.8 million in FY14 to $3.0 million in FY15, which Goudswaard says reflects the high quality and low risk of the loan book growth.
The non-major lender has also revealed plans to invest more than $24 million in technology and digital initiatives in 2016, which it says will include the delivery of a loan origination system to streamline and enhance loan processing capabilities.
CUA also has plans to expand and enhance its products offerings, in addition to examining other opportunities to bundle banking and insurance products.
