NZCU Baywide clicks over a milestone mark

Thursday, August 10th 2017, 3:05PM

NZCU Baywide has passed the $300 million in assets, a 6% lift in the past 12 months. And the growth continues at an accelerated rate, chief executive Gavin Earle says.

The result shows a tripling of its asset base in the last 10 years, an achievement made more significant considering three years of that period were amidst the Global Financial Crisis.

It also reveals acceleration in growth – it took over three decades to reach an asset base of $100m and the last ten years to reach over $300m. In the past 12 months alone assets have grown by nearly $20m.

Earle says reaching this milestone is a result of focus and ambition to continuously grow and strengthen. It also reflects delivery of our strategy to provide lending options to everyday Kiwis across New Zealand.

“We are delighted with this achievement – it supports the approach we take to help everyday people achieve their financial goals, who in turn support us as a credit union. The acceleration in our growth shows that being a customer of a credit union is an increasingly attractive option for financial products and services, wherever you reside,” he says.

“It also gives us further impetus to build scale and efficiency by investing back into processes, systems and our people, to meet the rapidly evolving expectations of customers.

“Like all sectors, the finance sector is changing rapidly but we believe there’s a growing demand for a personal cooperative approach that competes well against any of the Tier 1 banks, P2P lenders and other finance providers.”

The Credit Union is also continuing to invest back into the business with the roll-out this year of a new core banking system.

“This is arguably the most significant project in our 46 year history and will get us ready for another phase of our expansion,” Mr Earle says.

“But while we grow, our values remain the same - helping customers achieve their financial goals by providing consistent top class service, outstanding value and being competitive with any bank or other financial institution.”

NZCU Baywide’s success is the result of a solid, diverse loan portfolio built on conservative lending policies and practices. Its focus is on individual customers with 83% (June 2017) of its lending in home loans secured by a mortgage, with the balance in small personal loans. It limits its exposure by not dealing with companies, business and the property development market.

It has over 27,000 customers and is 100 percent New Zealand owned. As a financial cooperative or credit union, it is owned by those who invest as customers. It has a 16 branch network throughout the central and lower North Island and a nationwide online lending website. It was originally established in Hawke’s Bay in 1971 as the Whakatu Freezing Works Employee’s Credit Union.

Tags: NZCU Baywide