Bold banking pivot starts to reap rewards for BNK
Born in the dusty mining hub of Kalgoorlie in 1982, the former Goldfields Credit Union started as a modest deposit taker and loan lender for Western Australia's outback workforce, with branches in the gold mining town and Esperance.
Fast-forward to today, and it has morphed into BNK – an efficient online bank with no branches and bold plans to become a force in finance that meets the total banking needs of a modern and enterprising Australian population.
The grand plan to modernise the savings bank first took root in 2012 after the business was demutualised and then listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.
The move also coincided with certification from the Australian banking regulator APRA to become an authorised deposit-taking institution, allowing the bank to access the Australian government's $250,000 deposit guarantee scheme.
Over the next six years the business gradually grew, until in 2018, the bank took a giant leap by striking a partnership deal with mortgage aggregation business Finsure Finance and Insurance. This merger was a significant step in Goldfields Money's transformation into a scalable challenger bank.
Finsure came with a non-bank mortgage-lending platform, Better Choice Home Loans, which expanded Goldfields Money's lending capability and product options through a nationwide network of mortgage brokers.
By 2019, Goldfields Money had refreshed its image and branded to BNK Bank.
BNK still operates the Goldfields Money and Better Choice banners, although plans are afoot to bring everything under the single tagline of BNK Bank in the next 12 months.
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