The country's biggest credit union, CUA, has reported new loans growing by 16.7 per cent to $309 million and its loan book rising 4.9 per cent to $9 billion.

He said CUA had achieved record loan growth, but he said they had held net interest margins – the difference between what they pay for deposits and what they earn on loans – flat.

"Because we are owned by our ­customers, the key difference for us [to a listed bank] is that we don't have to pay dividends," he said. "That allows us to pay our dividends through lower rates."

Consolidated assets were up 3.5 per cent to $10.3 billion. "Our lending growth has been largely driven by the continued success of our award winning products such as our RateBreaker package," he said.

"Our customer owned model means we will always make rate ­decisions which are in the best interests of our customer not necessarily the bottom line."

9 September 2014 The Age - Shaun Drummond

News source: http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/cua-profit-declines-as-new-loans-begin-to-accelerate-20140909-10ef5x.html#ixzz3DLmD2Pot