Circle Credit Co-operative Limited was registered in Victoria on 27th October, 1971. It formed out of the merger of ICIANZ Ascot Vale Area Employees Credit Co-operative and Derrimut Credit Co-operative. A year later ICIANZ Yarraville Area Employees Credit Co-operative joined the Circle.
An article in the June 1994 edition of Australian Credit Unions Magazine about Circle Credit Co-operative is worth quoting at length as it contains some interesting historical titbits:
“Circle Credit’s history dates back to 1963 when it first commenced operation at the Deer Park site as the Derrimut Credit Co-operative. Two years later, credit co-operatives were formed at the other ICI sites in Victoria; the Yarraville Area Employees Credit Co-operative and the Ascot Vale Area Employees Credit Co-operative … Its first location was the UF Plastics Factory in Ballarat Road and it subsequently moved to the Site Services Building at Gate 6.
In 1972 Circle Credit had advanced $250,000 in loans to members (assets $262,000) which today has grown in excess of $13 million with total assets of $19.5 million. The membership has grown from a few hundred in Victoria to 3,800 members throughout Australia.
Circle Credit’s function is to provide quality financial services which include savings, investment and cheque accounts, Redicards, Visa Cards, and personal, home and investment loans to ICI employees and their families throughout Australia”.
The very next edition of Australian Credit Unions Magazine, published in August 1994, featured a fascinating piece on the opening of Circle Credit’s new national headquarters in Melbourne. What makes this especially interesting is that the building was an Ausco Commercial Transportable Building. This meant that if Circle Credit decided that they weren’t happy with the location, they could literally pull up stumps and move the building elsewhere.
Of the new building, Circle Credit General Manager, Bernie Gerlinger said, “We needed flexibility, functionality and security in our new development … It was also important that the aesthetics of the new building would reflect Circle Credit’s strength, success and service to its 4000 ICI members nationally. But it was also important to blend the building into the rural ambiance of the 486 hectare ICI site”.
In 2015, Circle Credit Co-operative became part of the Alliance Bank group and began trading as Circle Alliance Bank.
