Heritage Bank welcomes increasing trust in customer-owned banking sector

27 June 2018

Heritage Bank CEO Peter Lock today welcomed new research showing that the current banking Royal Commission has increased trust in customer-owned banking institutions.                         

Mr Lock said customer-owned banks such as Heritage offered credible, strong and viable alternatives to the major banks, and more people were now starting to take notice of them.

An Essential Media poll commissioned by the Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA) has found almost half of all Australians have less trust in the big banks because of the Royal Commission into banking.

At the same time, trust in customer owned banking institutions is on the rise.

The poll found that because of the Royal Commission into banking:

• 47% have less trust in big 4 banks
• 18% have more trust in Credit Unions
• 17% have more trust in Customer-Owned Banks
• 15% have more trust in Building Societies

Mr Lock said the findings weren’t a surprise.

“We are not surprised to see trust in customer-owned institutions like Heritage Bank on the rise in response to the stories coming out of the Royal Commission,” Mr Lock said.

“We are seeing in our local community that people want a banking institution they can trust to put them first. Our customers are telling us they trust us to have their best interests at heart, because we operate in a very different way to the big banks

“Because of our customer-owned model, we are solely customer focused - 100% of our profits are used to benefit customers.

“We support the Own Your Banking campaign launched by COBA and hope to see a continued switch towards customer-owned banks as a trusted alternative.”

For more on the poll results visit ownyourbanking.com.au and join the conversation on social media, use the hashtag #OwnYourBanking.

ENDS