Auswide Bank is celebrating 12 months of success after the local institution released news of it's record-breaking growth for the 2020-21 financial period.
Managing director Martin Barrett said in the past financial year the bank had experienced strong improvement across all key metrics including a net profit after tax of $24.155m, up 30.5%.
Mr Barrett said the local bank, which started from humble beginnings in the region in 1966, was now performing at a higher rate than some of the nation's big banks.
“From a purely loan broker perspective, we are doing marginally better,” he said.
“A few of the big four banks have certainly experienced growth of around about five per cent while our growth came in at 10 per cent for the financial year.”
Mr Barrett said he put the success down to a range of factors including the bank's evolving operations and the current housing market boom spurred on by COVID-19.
“Brokers continue to represent an important distribution channel for us and our most significant growth opportunity,” he said.
“More brokers are choosing to do their home loans through Auswide than ever before, which is due to high turnaround for our approval times.
“We can usually approve a home loan within a week, sometimes within a day, because all of our work is kept onshore rather than offshore.”
Mr Barrett said the massive growth had been a first for the bank and had not only been experienced locally, but also in its growing customer base across Southeast Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
He said it was also partly due to the bank's participation in the First Home Owner's Scheme, providing customers a range of savings.
“Rather than our customers needing a 20 per cent deposit for their home loan they only have to have a five per cent deposit which is proving to be a huge drawcard,” he said.
“Last year we approved about 750 million dollars of loans and this year that has skyrocketed to well over a billion dollars.”
As for the future, Mr Barrett said he was confident that the next 12 months would remain positive.
“While I believe the construction side of things will slow down a little bit due to constraints on the industry, there is still plenty happening with development, first home buyers and more,” he said.
“Deposits are also growing steadily.
“I am actually surprised by how much money there is out there to be put in a bank, it's amazing.”
Mr Barrett said Auswide Bank would not be in such a positive position without the support from its customers and the local community.
“I would like to say thank you to Bundaberg for continuing to support us,” he said.
“It's fantastic to be in a town that really does support their local bank and the more we get the support, the more we can give back to local groups and organisations.
“Our vision of becoming the bank that our customers, staff and partners want their friends, family and colleagues to bank with is coming to fruition.”
