New bank will have $20bn in assets and 600,000 members
Members of both the Newcastle Permanent Building Society and Greater Bank have strongly voted in favour of the proposal to merge the organisations, to create one of Australia’s leading customer-owned banks.
The provisional results of Special General Meetings held on Wednesday, November 2, are undergoing final validation and if confirmed, will result in a combined entity with more than $20bn in total assets and approximately 600,000 customers.
Members of Newcastle Permanent and Greater Bank will be able to beneft from almost 200 years of combined operating history.
The merged organisation, Newcastle Greater Mutual Group Ltd, will be led by a board made up of four directors from each of the current Greater Bank and Newcastle Permanent boards. The backing of members for the merger follows the unanimous support for the merger from both Newcastle Permanent’s and Greater Bank’s board of directors back in March.
Wayne Russell, chair of Greater Bank, will assume the role of group chair and Bernadette Inglis, CEO of Newcastle Permanent (both pictured above) will be group CEO.
Russell said both leadership teams were buoyed by the voting turnout.
“Creating a financial powerhouse based here 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’,” Russell said.
“Thank you to everyone who voted on the proposal. 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 (pictured below right with Russell) reiterated the merged organisation’s commitment to customer-owned banking.
“I too would like to take this opportunity to thank our members that cast a vote at this important moment in our organisation’s history. The response has far exceeded our constitutional thresholds and we’re very encouraged by the provisional results,” Eather said.
“Both Newcastle Permanent and Greater Bank have long championed customer-owned banking, and merging will enable us to secure its future here in regional NSW.
“The new organisation will have size and scale that we can leverage to grow our business over the longer term. 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.
Newcastle Permanent and Greater Bank made a number of commitments to members when proposing the merger, including that maintaining the branch network will remain a critical part of the new entity’s strategy moving forward.
Both brands, Greater Bank and Newcastle Permanent, will be retained under the merged entity Newcastle Greater Mutual Group Ltd and there will be no change to customer bank accounts or banking details on merging.
