Proposal 'not in the best interests' of members following due diligence
Despite a growing number of customer-owned bank mergers, the latest proposal involving Beyond Bank and Police & Nurses Limited won’t go head, after the PNL board said the plan would not be in the best interest of its members.
The potential merger of the two banks was announced in June with Beyond Bank head of third party and lending solutions Darren McLeod and P&N Bank general manager broker Kaine Adamson both saying the merger would benefit brokers and customers.
However, the board of PNL, which includes P&N Bank and BCU Bank, said it had now concluded its due diligence.
“The PNL Board determined that progressing the merger would not be in the best interests of its members,” the board stated on the P&N Bank website.
PNL chair Gary Humphreys (pictured above) said that the board had hoped that a merger recommendation would result from the due diligence process.
“While it’s disappointing that we will not be progressing this opportunity, our due diligence process was robust and I am confident that we have made the right decision,” Humphreys said.
He said PNL remained operationally strong and secure in its current state – however, size and scale remain important given the ongoing investments required in areas such as cyber security, fraud and financial crime.
“We will therefore continue to pursue our strategic agenda to grow organically and through mergers while always acting in the best interests of our members.”
A Beyond Bank spokesperson confirmed that the bank, one of Australia’s most trusted customer-owned banks, had announced that a potential merger between it and PNL would not proceed.
In a media statement on its website, Beyond Bank said its customers would always be its highest priority and it was looking forward to continuing to provide financial wellbeing for them and their local communities.
“Beyond Bank remains a strong prosperous bank with an exciting strategy for the future.”
Because it was bound by confidentiality obligations in the memorandum of understanding, Beyond Bank said there would be no further comment.
Merger proposal
When Beyond Bank and PNL announced their intention to explore a merger back in June, the banks said a newly merged organisation would create one of Australia’s largest customer-owned banks with a combined 450,000 members and total assets of nearly $20 billion.
Humphreys had said with a close alignment of culture and values, and a shared focus on member-first banking, “we believe that our banks would make ideal merger partners”.
Beyond Bank chair Sam Andersen had agreed with Humphreys, saying a shared history and a future commitment to communities and sustainability was a solid foundation for a proposed merger.
McLeod also said back in June that the merger would improve Beyond Bank's reach into Western Australia, traditionally a stronghold for P&N Bank, and correspondingly P&N Bank would have greater access to South Australia, where Beyond Bank is based.
Sector consolidation
There’s an ongoing trend of mutual banks merging over the last two years, including Greater Bank and Newcastle Permanent merging last year to form the NGM Group.
Heritage Bank and People’s Choice merged in 2023, and has now rebranded as People First Bank.
Bank Australia and Qudos Bank also announced in February that they intend to merge.
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