Global interest in merger
Recently I had the honour of sharing Heritage and People’s Choice’s merger success story on a global stage at the World Credit Union Conference.
By Peter Lock, CEO, Heritage and People’s Choice
Recently I had the honour of sharing Heritage and People’s Choice’s merger success story on a global stage at the World Credit Union Conference.
By bringing together two relatively large organisations in a merger of equals, we’ve not only become Australia’s leading member-owned bank, but also one of the largest customer-owned banks in the world.
That’s really something to be proud of.
The story of our merger is drawing global attention because it has been such a seamless and successful transition.
Our experience has made clear how important it is to have alignment of culture, values and vision when you bring organisations together.
Even with the best of intentions, without a cultural alignment a merger isn't going to work, whether it's a merger of similar-sized organisations or not. For us, the key to a successful merger has come down to sharing a common purpose, strategy and being values-driven, with the core non-negotiable of maintaining our mutual status.
Our story was of great interest to the conference attendees, who represented member-owned organisations from across the globe.
To me, our merger is genuinely exciting because it means we have a fantastic opportunity to help reset the way people think about banking and understand the benefits of the customer-owned model on a national, and even international, stage.
That story definitely resonated with everyone I spoke to, and I know the sector worldwide is watching closely to monitor our progress.