Australian Mutual Bank’s purpose is to have an overall positive impact on society and the environment through the provision of banking services to members and their communities.
Australian Mutual Bank’s activities are funded by retail deposits from members. These retail deposits are used to provide loans back to our members. Approximately 96% of loans are residential mortgage secured, 3% are personal loans, and just over 1% are commercial purpose loans. Commercial purposes exclude activities that are deemed detrimental or destructive to the environment, or harmful to members of society. Credit cards are not able to be used for online gambling transactions.
Your deposits with Australian Mutual Bank are ethical because:
Loans may be provided for any worthwhile, lawful business related activity that does not conflict with Australian Mutual Bank’s constitution purpose of having an overall positive impact on society and the environment through the provision of banking services.
Australian Mutual Bank will avoid the provision of financial support to individuals or businesses whose activities are deemed detrimental or destructive to the environment, or harmful to members of society. Examples of such activities are:
Australian Mutual Bank will only place investments with banks that are regulated in Australia. Where we can, we avoid counterparties with poor ESG ratings and those with fossil fuel loan exposures. Importantly, Australian Mutual Bank has established investment limits specifically for mutual banks and credit unions, which we consider to be more ethical banking organisations.
Even before the introduction of responsible lending legislation, Australian Mutual Bank considers that it has always been a responsible lender. Australian Mutual Bank has always ensured that borrowing members have the capacity to make their loan repayments. Our lending policies follow the guidelines set out by ASIC under The National Consumer Credit Protection Act. This Act formalised responsible lending guidelines and ensures that documents include adequate disclosures, that forms are correctly completed, and that proper serviceability calculations are used to assess loan affordability.
Australian Mutual Bank is a member of the Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA) and is a signatory of the Customer Owned Banking Code of Practice - a set of ethical standards for customer owned banks, credit unions and mutual building societies which focus on customer benefits, community involvement, fairer fees and quality service.
