Queensland Community Credit Union operated out of Toowong in Brisbane for 42 years. They remained quite small and managed to fly under the radar. For example, the profile on them in the June 1999 edition of Directions magazine notes that:
“Less than a year ago, Queensland Community Credit Union was operating from a grand old Queenslander in suburban Brisbane, without any of the signage or branding to distinguish it as a business rather than a residence.
The credit union had operated under this camouflage for the last eight years, but intended expansion plans required a relocation to office space in a business district.”
By this stage, Queensland Community Credit Union had 2000 members, held $9 million in assets, had no branches at all and just 3 staff. In the Directions piece, CEO Ken Gough noted that, “We’re virtually a non-cash credit union. Relationships and servicing of members are either done by phone, mail or through the National Australia Bank”.
Another way that Queensland Community was able to provide services with very little infrastructure and few personnel was through their partnership with Queensland Cooperative Housing Society. The housing society provided the credit union with access to home loans and the credit union provided housing society members with access to personal loans, car loans, savings and cheque accounts, visa cards and insurance services.
Interestingly, Queensland Community Credit Union was registered in 1965 but became Australian Netherlands Credit Union in 1968 only to revert back to Queensland Community Credit Union in 1995. This is because the credit union was begun as a way for the Dutch government to assist their citizens and expatriates in Australia with business finance.
An article from the Dutch Australian Weekly of 8 October, 1971, offers a nice little insight into the early operations of the credit union. Translated from the original Dutch it states:
“The Australian Netherlands Credit Union in Brisbane was originally set up to help members of the Dutch community in Queensland with short term loans up to $5000. The Australian Netherlands Credit Union – whose correspondence address is GPO Box 1112, Brisbane, Qld, 4001 – provides help for practically all personal matters in need of assistance. The interest on loans is 1% per month or 6.6% ‘flat’. It follows that a loan at a credit union is much cheaper than at a financing partner society. The difference is about 3%.”
Immigration restrictions began to affect the credit union’s link with Dutch Australians from the 1970s onwards and they eventually lost funding from the Dutch government. Ultimately they had to broaden the bond to the wider community which they did in 1988 before reverting to their original name a few years later.
Ken Gough had been CEO of Queensland Community CU for 28 years when he was interviewed for Directions in 1999 and he said that the credit union was looking at growth opportunities, stating:
“When you’re a smaller organisation, you can be more flexible and change direction quickly. We can be more responsive to the market, and adjust direction accordingly, rather than simply maintaining our course regardless.
This credit union was born out of the philosophy and principles of the Movement and we believe it is our responsiveness to member needs which does the greatest to putting these principles into practice.”
Ken Gough was still CEO/Board Secretary of the credit union in 2007 but it would be his last year in that position. Chairman M. Lagerwaard wrote in the 2007 Annual Report that:
The board during the year carried out its strategic planning and after due consideration of the credit union’s limited lending capacity, human resources and increasing overhead costs it was resolved that the credit union should consider merging with a larger organisation . It would need to offer a range of competitive services and at the same time have the resources to deal with compliance regulations.
The board and management entered into discussions with Summerland Credit Union Limited in February 2007 to consider a merger. On the 16 May 2007, Heads of Agreement was executed by both parties. A merger proposal will be put to members at our annual general meeting.
A full disclosure document that has been approved by APRA is now being distributed to all members.
The members will be invited to attend the meeting to vote on the merger. If approved the transfer will be effective on 1 December 2007.
The members voted in favour of the merger and Queensland Community Credit Union transferred engagements to Summerland Credit Union in December 2007.
