People's Choice credit union vote in South Australia in 2022 to merge with Heritage Bank in Queensland
People’s Choice Credit Union headquarters on the corner of Flinders Street and Gawler Place, Adelaide city.
Adelaide-based People’s Choice Credit Union members voted in 2022 to merge with Toowoomba-based Heritage Bank in a bid to create one of Australia’s largest customer-owned banking organisations.
The combined entity was set to have 720,000 members, 1,900 employees, more than $23 billion in assets and 95 branches across South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory.
People’s Choice, headquartered in Flinders Street, Adelaide city, was already Australia’s largest credit union with 390,000 members, almost 900 employees, $9.9 billion in total assets and 34 branches and advice centres in South Australia, Victoria, Northern Territory and Western Australia.
People’s Choice started in 1949 when the Public Service Association of South Australia was instrumental in establishing the state's first credit union: Savings & Loans. People's Choice was formed in 2009 when Savings & Loans through merged with Australian Central. Members voted for the name change in 2011. People’s Choice was involved in other mergers, including with the Northern Territory Credit Union.
People's Choice completed a $650 million offering of residential mortgage-backed securities in 2019. The offering was launched at $500 million but was extended to $650 million after receiving $1.4 million in bids.
People's Choice developed an index of housing affordability and liveability to help people looking to buy a house. The People's Choice of Housing analyses suburbs for whether a financial institution was likely to lend to a couple on ordinary income and expenses for a median-priced home in that suburb (serviceability), the cost of buying that home (affordability) and others factors summarising whether people are likely to want to live in that suburb (liveability).
People’s Choice also offered credit cards, transaction and savings accounts, financial advice and insurance. As a credit union, any profits made were reinvested back into better products and services for members and building strong communities.
