Keith Mannix had a big influence on the development of the Australian credit union movment in the last quarter of the 20th century. He had important positions with the NSW Credit Union League (NSWCUL) and the NSW Credit Union Savings Board. He was also appointed to the first Board of the Australian Financial Institutions’ Commission and was a Regional Manager for CUSCAL among other work.
However, Keith’s first love was rugby league. In fact he left his first job with the Commonwealth Bank in Sydney so he could play with the Wynnum-Manly club in Brisbane. In Sydney, his work with the Commonwealth Bank was interfering with his rugby league career with Canterbury.
The Keith Mannix story began in Sydney where he was born in 1942 at the height of the Second World War. His father was in the RAF and that position took the family to Maryborough, Qld. When his father was then stationed in New Guinea, his mother moved the family back to Sydney to live with her parents.
The family was reunited in Sydney after the war and Keith grew up there except for a brief period in Katoomba where he attended Katoomba High School before returning to Sydney and Punchbowl High School. Keith told Richard Raxworthy in the oral history interview recorded in 1994 and held in our collection, that his father was a very community minded person who had a profound influence on him. He also had a deep respect for a music teacher who he said, “had a great influence on me. It was only for a short period of my life but he is a guy I will never forget. He is now the Head of the Conservatorium of Music”. Keith sang in the school choir and played trombone in the school band.
After he finished with Wynnum-Manly Rugby League Club he returned to Sydney and worked outside of finance before joining NSWCUL as the Field Officer in 1974. Keith had this to say to Richard Raxworthy when asked about how he enjoyed his Field Officer role:
Well it was very good. I was very fortunate because at that stage, which was in 1974, the credit union movement was really exploding growth-wise, numbers of credit unions and that. My very first job, I remember this clearly because it really gave me a tremendous footing in the movement, was to go around and do a series of mini-surveys of credit unions. So in the first three months of employment, or six months say, I visited some ninety credit unions and did a survey of their operations. It was something which gave me a tremendous insight into the operation of credit unions from day one. These mini-surveys also gave the management of the League tremendous insight into the financial strength of the credit union movement. So that was my very first job.
He then worked as the Development Officer at NSWCUL during a time of unprecedented growth in financial mutuals. However, it was also a difficult time economically in Australia. This created the circumstances that led to the establishment of the Savings Reserve Board. Here is Keith on his work as the Development Officer at NSWCUL:
I became involved in the formation of new credit unions and the development of community credit unions, which were a new thing at that stage. …. Then the financial crisis that we had in Australia in late 1974 and early 1975 really then pushed me into this area of stabilisation of problem credit unions.
It really was a very difficult time for all New South Wales credit unions because at that stage, and I remember this very clearly, on 1 January 1975, when the newest credit union in New South Wales was formed, that was the Northern Mineworkers Credit Union, I remember this well because Steve Burton and myself were the two that actually formed it, made the five hundred and fourth credit union registered in New South Wales.
Keith went on to say that of those five hundred credit unions, “nearly 200 were sick”. This is where his work with the NSW Credit Union Savings Board was most crucial. Richard Raxworthy asked Keith how it was that so many credit unions got into difficulties and it is worth quoting Keith at length on the issue in order to get a good grasp of the situation:
Well deficit budgeting, of course, is the easy blame for it but the fact of the matter is that any credit union that has ever been formed will take eighteen months before it reaches the point of break even. Therefore, for the first eighteen months all new credit unions go into deficit. Now the large number of credit unions that were being formed meant that there was a large number of credit unions with deficits.
Now the things that led to that were financial management inexperience, the bonds of areas of credit unions being too small, the rapid changes to the financial climate at that time which credit unions just couldn't cope with, vis a vis there was a very large increase in interest rates at that time. I'd say the going rate went from six per cent to eighteen per cent in a period of nine months but credit unions appeared to be locked into their one per cent per month charging mechanism and really it was too big a step for them to increase interest rates. That lack of change with the rest of the financial environment created major problems for them. But then also with their growth came other problems, especially the problem of bad debts. As they became larger and larger their lending expanded and the close knowledge of their borrowers started to dissipate.
During this period Keith had his first experience of managing a credit union. Blacktown Credit Union was in dire straits and he took over as General Manager for a period of nine months to see what could be done with it. He saw it safely merged into Central Mutual Credit Union before moving onto his next rescue mission.
Keith’s last big role in customer owned banking was as General Manager of Select Credit Union from 1995 to 2000.
Keith receiving CUSCAL's Distinguished Service Award in 1997 for services to the Australian credit union movement [AMH Collection]
