Greater Bank and Newcastle Permanent are set to officially merge next March after members strongly voted in favour of the move to create one of Australia’s leading customer-owned banks.
The provisional results of Special General Meetings held on Nov ember 2 are undergoing final validation and if confirmed, will see the formation of a combined entity with more than $20B in total assets and approximately 600,000 customers, many of them on the Central Coast, benefiting from almost 200 years of combined operating history.
The merged organisation, Newcastle Greater Mutual Group Ltd, will be led by a Board comprising four Directors from each of the current Greater Bank and Newcastle Permanent Boards.
Wayne Russell, Chair of Greater Bank, will assume the role of Chair and Bernadette Inglis, CEO of Newcastle Permanent, will be Group CEO.
Russell said both leadership teams were buoyed by the voting turnout.
“Creating a financial powerhouse based in the Hunter is an incredibly exciting prospect and I speak for both organisations when I say how proud we are that our members share our vision and voted a strong ‘yes’,” he said.
“Bringing together our two brands under the one merged entity better positions us to compete with the major banks and deliver high value, competitive banking for our customers.
“Final validation of the votes is underway but we’re confident the provisional outcome will be confirmed, and the merger will proceed.”
Jeff Eather, Chair of Newcastle Permanent, said both banks had long championed customer-owned banking.
“The new organisation will have size and scale that we can leverage to grow our business over the longer term,” he said.
“We now have a strong springboard to take our way of banking to more Australians, while keeping skills and expertise, jobs and investment here.”
Once the votes have been finalised, both organisations will publish the results of the Special General Meetings on their respective websites.
The merger is planned to come into effect March 1, 2023, following final regulatory approvals.
Maintaining the branch network will remain a critical part of the new entity’s strategy moving forward.
There will be no change to customer bank accounts or banking details on merging.
Primary source: Media release, Nov 2, 2022, Greater Bank and Newcastle United Permanent